


Falling in Love is Hard on the Knees

by Ultra



Category: Veronica Mars (Movie 2014), Veronica Mars (TV)
Genre: Broken Bones, Confessions, Confusion, Crimes & Criminals, Deception, Developing Relationship, Eventual Romance, F/M, Friendship/Love, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Injury Recovery, Kissing, Love, Major Character Injury, Minor Violence, Misunderstandings, Pain, Post-Movie: Veronica Mars (2014), Private Investigators, Understanding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-22
Updated: 2016-07-22
Packaged: 2019-08-23 17:29:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 24
Words: 64,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16623302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ultra/pseuds/Ultra
Summary: When Dick needs serious help and Mac is the only one around to turn to, it seems they have no choice but to accept they might actually be capable of friendship, or potentially even more. Meanwhile, can Veronica crack the latest case, and keep her long-distance relationship with Logan on track?





	1. Chapter 1

Mac hated being out this late. It wasn’t that she was afraid exactly, even though she knew Neptune was becoming a more and more dangerous place of late. The way the new Sherriff Lamb operated and his deputies besides, it meant no self-respecting person should be walking the streets at night, not just for fear of being attacked by the less-nice folks of Neptune, but equally as much because you might just be arrested by the crooked members of Balboa County’s law enforcement squad.

Armed with her Taser and her smarts, much of which she had gained in a long-term friendship with Veronica, Mac didn’t worry too much about being out in the dark. She was just wary. Anybody with a brain in their head would be, which counted out all those falling from the nightclubs in a haze of sex and alcohol.

Mac rolled her eyes at the idiotic displays she witnessed, a woman pushed up against the cold brick of a building by a guy who had his tongue so far down her throat, Mac was wondering who would swallow who first. Around the next corner, a guy retched up everything he had consumed that day into the gutter. The so-called youth of today. Mac may still be the right side of thirty, but she had never had time for the more idiotic element even when she were much younger, she certainly didn’t care for it now.

Checking her watch, she saw it was close to midnight. Mac quickened her pace and crossed the street before another car shot by at high speed, the top down and music blaring as if it were nothing but a stereo on wheels. The noise was deafening for a few moments and then just as quickly gone far into the distance.

“So many headaches in the morning,” she muttered to herself as she walked on.

The hangovers and the loud music, not to mention the awful regret of waking up with the memories of who or what you might have had sex with. Maybe it was worse to wake up not knowing, but Mac couldn’t be sure. She had never been that girl so it never mattered to her.

Cutting through alleys, Mac was never the woman who did that either. She knew all the risks and better than most after working closely with Veronica, sometimes just listening to the tales she told. Tonight it was the fastest way home. Mac's hand went into her bag to reach for the Taser, thumb hovering over the button as she had a short mental battle about going through that alleyway. It cut between the main street to the closest thing Neptune had to middle class housing. Honestly, it was just one up from the barrio, but Mac felt safe when she was locked in her own home, less so getting to it late at night. Curse her random decision to stay at the movie theatre for the entire Star Wars marathon and then get an engaged tone from both cab companies she tried, then voicemail when she rang Wallace.

“Okay,” said Mac to herself, pushing the button on her Taser and watching the blue electric spark. “Head up, deep breath, just walk,” she told herself, powering her way down the alley without another moment’s pause.

She was half way down when she heard the noise. It ought to make her want to quicken her pace rather than dare to stop, but somehow the groaning was oddly familiar. That seemed like a crazy thought, and Mac knew it. Why would a groan from a guy in an alley ever be familiar to her? Mac couldn’t make sense of that and instantly sparked up her Taser. The light from it made a face visible in the dark a moment, and that face was bloody and bruised. Still, as Mac let her feet stop walking and her eyes focus in the dim light, a frown marred her features. She knew that face. It wasn’t usually in such a state, but she did recognise it.

“Dick?” she said softly.

“Wha..?” came the groan of a reply.

Mac kept the Taser armed in one hand but reached for her cell with the other, turning on the flashlight feature. Immediately, she knew she had been right. The blond hair and familiar face were without question Dick Casabancas, and Mac winced at the sight of him right now.

“Oh my God!” she said, fumbling with her cell to call 911. “We need an ambulance” she told the dispatcher the moment she got the chance. “The alley behind the 09er nightclub. It’s, er... a friend of mine,” she said, not knowing how else to put it right now and not much caring how inaccurate her descriptor for Dick might really be. “I don’t know what happened, I just found him here. There’s a lot of blood,” she explained, wincing at the sight.

Mac swallowed hard as bile rose in her throat. She couldn’t really say she had any deep and meaningful feelings for Dick, but seeing anybody so badly hurt, not knowing how it happened, save for the fact that somebody must have inflicted these injuries on purpose, it made her feel so sick.

“Yes, he’s breathing, and at least semi-conscious,” she replied after the dispatcher prompted her at least twice. “Okay, thanks.”

She hung up on the promise of a paramedic coming as fast as they could, and heeded the warning for the need to keep the patient awake if at all possible but not to move him. It was hard to even see what she was doing in the dark, and all the time Mac felt the need to check both ends of the alley, just a little afraid that whoever did this might come back and finish the job.

“Mac?” groaned Dick, his arm suddenly reaching for her.

She took his hand on instinct and gave the guy her full attention.

“It’s okay, Dick,” she promised. “It’s going to be okay. I called for help and they’re coming, just... just try to stay awake, okay? Dick?” she prompted when no answer came.

Mac put on her cell phone flash light on again and shone it straight into Dick’s face. His eyes squinted against the brightness but at least the wincing proved he was still awake. Mac kind of wished she couldn’t see so much of his face then when bruising showed around one eye and too much blood streaked his blond hair. Moving the light down, she saw tears in his clothes, one area of chest clearly visibly and obviously bruising too. She feared for what other injuries he might have that she couldn’t see, and had to swallow hard before she could speak again.

“What happened, Dick?” she asked.

“I... I was just walking,” he said absently, head lolling from side to side against the wall. “She was...”

“She?” prompted Mac. “Who were you with, Dick?”

Somehow Mac doubted a woman did this to him. Not that she didn’t think somebody of the female persuasion incapable of such an act, because she knew better than that, but it seemed less likely. Dick wasn’t a small guy and he knew something about defending himself, she was sure. A lot of damage had been done here. Likely any woman involved was a distraction rather than the perpetrator of this crime.

“I don’t know,” he muttered then, free hand going to his head.

Pulling his fingers away he tried to see them through the fog that must be clouding both his mind and vision. Mac watched his eyes widen a little when he realised there was blood coming from his head.

“Don’t move,” she warned when he looked set to try. “Please, stay there until help comes.”

Dick nodded just a little, his eyes starting to close again. Mac knew she couldn’t let that happen, she just didn’t know how to stop it. Shaking him awake could be dangerous, causing worse injuries than Dick had already sustained, but honestly, if he went to sleep and didn’t wake up ever again, that had to be worse.

“Dick, please!” she urged him, squeezing the hand she still held. “Dick, you have to stay awake. I need you to stay with me.”

His eyes came open slowly and a crooked smile took over his lips. He looked Mac right in the eyes, or seemed to, and then with a slur he spoke again.

“Always knew you wanted me, babe.”

Mac wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. Even after such an obvious and nasty attack, Dick was still acting like the player he had always been. It was a relief though, to have him awake and seeming so much like himself even now. The sound of sirens in the street brought further relief, and Mac scrambled back to her feet, letting go of Dick’s hand. He grunted as his own arm fell back down to his side and Mac apologised.

“I’ll be right back, Dick. I promise,”she swore, hurrying to the end of the alley to meet the paramedic.

As help finally came running, Mac pointed them to where Dick lay. Only as her voice cracked did she realise tears were trickling from her eyes. It had to be shock, she was sure, but now it was passing by. Help was here to look after Dick and get him to a hospital which he clearly very much needed. Mac’s next instinct was to turn her attention back to her cell and make one more call.

“Somebody better be dead,” said a grumpy voice on the other end of the line.

“Almost,” she replied, knowing full well that Veronica would be immediately awake and panicked at the sound of such a response. “I just found Dick Casablancas in the alley behind the 09er. Somebody beat the ever-living crap out of him, Veronica. I know we all want to smack the guy in the mouth once in a while, but whoever did this really meant business.”

There was a long silence and Mac knew the cogs in Veronica’s mind were turning a mile a minute trying to figure this one out. It wasn’t that neither of them could think of a hundred people that might be pissed at Dick, but to cause him this much damage, that was pretty serious. Besides, as much of a pain in the ass as the guy could be, both Mac and Veronica were highly aware that he was Logan’s best friend. If he were here, he’d be asking that Veronica be on the case without a doubt, meaning she really didn’t have the choice of ignoring what happened, even if she wanted to.

“You headed to a hospital?” she asked.

Veronica knew without question that Mac had called 911 first and probably wouldn’t dare block her phone calling herself until help arrived.

“Yeah, I’m guessing Neptune General,” replied Mac, watching from the mouth of the alley as the paramedics checked Dick over. “If it’s anything more serious and he needs a specialist... well, I’ll call again if that happens.”

There seemed to be no question that Mac would accompany Dick to the hospital. He needed somebody and honestly Mac had no clue who else might want to be there for the guy. In the absence of Logan, there were no friends, and it had been a long time since there was family, Mac knew that better than anyone.

“I’ll be there as fast as I can,” said Veronica.

Mac could hear she was already out of bed and rifling through hangars with her free hand, hunting down clothes she could get dressed in fast. Mac replied and thanked her friend before hanging up, just in time to move out of the way when the paramedics brought Dick out of the alley on a stretcher. He was strapped down to keep his neck and back straight until he could be checked for spinal or internal injuries, she assumed. The tears came again, and Mac wiped them away fast, only noticing after that her fingers, and now probably her face too, were stained red, with Dick’s blood.


	2. Chapter 2

Mac lost track of time sat in the waiting room of Neptune General. They wouldn’t let her in to see Dick and because she wasn’t family they wouldn’t tell her much either. Maybe it should have occurred to her to say she was his sister or cousin just to be kept in the loop, but it hadn’t. Nobody would let her anywhere near the guy to tell her a damn thing. It was a relief when Veronica arrived because she was bound to know what to do.

“Mac, I got here as fast as I could,” her friend told her as she came rushing in. “How is he?”

“No clue,” she shrugged helplessly. “I’m not family.”

“And Dick really doesn’t have any to speak of,” said Veronica thoughtfully.

She regretted saying so the moment she saw Mac wince. Even ten years on, it was tough on her whenever Cassidy got mentioned, even in vague terms. Mac’s ex who had also been Dick’s brother was long dead, their mother and father out of the picture for even more years. Dick was very much alone in the world, which wouldn’t usually conjure much sympathy from Veronica when the guy was living up to his name. Nights like this, she could actually feel bad for him. She knew what it was to be alone in a hospital bed, wondering what happened to you. Fortunately for Veronica, she always knew somebody was coming for her. Her father, Logan, Wallace. She had friends and family enough. Dick only really had Logan, and with the BFF away on manoeuvres, he really was very much alone.

“Okay,” said Veronica, looking left and right.

Some of the people at the hospital knew her, but many didn't, especially after her having been away from Neptune so long. If she could just ensure she spoke to some nurse that definitely wouldn’t know her story was phony...

“Excuse me?” she said, putting on a tearful expression and injecting a wobble into her voice as she approached a young sympathetic-looking nurse. “Um, I’m looking for Richard Casablancas,” she explained. “I’m his little sister, and this is his fiancé,” she said, gesturing towards Mac who tried her hardest not to look either stunned nor appalled. “Please, we heard he was badly hurt and we’re so worried.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” said the nurse, putting her hand to Veronica’s arm. “Um, I mean, he was badly hurt but the doctor says a lot of the injuries were superficial. Come on, you should come be with him,” she smiled kindly, leading Veronica and Mac down the hall.

Mac looked upon Veronica with wide incredulous eyes. She shrugged and grinned at her success, not caring what repercussions her lies might have later. It didn’t matter. For now, she was getting where she needed to go. The nurse was spilling all the details as they walked, letting Dick’s supposed sister and fiancé know that Dick was one of the lucky ones. There had been a lot of blood but nothing major was damaged internally. Dick had a broken arm, two cracked ribs, and a sprained ankle, but those would heal without too much trouble. The knock to the head could prove problematic, but the first twenty four hours were the most important for that. Veronica remembered the drill and nodded along with the nurse's kind words and explanation. She kept up the tearful, grateful act until she and Mac were left alone in Dick’s private room and then in an instant she meant business.

“Wow,” she said, looking the patient over. “Somebody really did a number on the guy.”

“You’re not kidding” agreed Mac, taking a look at the chart and notes at the foot of Dick’s bed. “I guess it could’ve been worse.”

“Provided the head injury doesn’t prove problematic,” said Veronica thoughtfully, staring at Dick’s two black eyes and the patch of bandage taped to the side of his matted blond hair. “It’s no secret I think the dude is an idiot,” she said deliberately. “But this? What could he have done to deserve it?”

“No clue,” Mac shook her head. “All I could think was a mugging, and the deputy that came around said his wallet and phone were gone, so that’s the theory they have too.”

Veronica nodded in understanding, and then turned to look at Mac. Something about the look on her face and the tone of her voice suggested she thought there was more to this.

“Talk to me, Mac,” she urged her. “You don’t think Dick was mugged?”

“I don’t know,” she shrugged. “He could’ve been. I mean, he’s not exactly lacking in funds and he likes to flaunt that, but... I don’t know, it’s almost too easy. Too simple, y’know?”

Veronica did know and all too well. Things in Neptune were not always as they seemed and certainly the motives for crime in any place could be far from what they appeared on the surface. Sure, Dick could have been mugged for his wallet, flashy phone and expensive watch, but there were other options. She wondered at the amount of damage done for a simple theft of goods.

Dick was almost definitely drunk when the ‘mugging’ occurred. There would be no need for severe violence. The crack to the head maybe, but somebody had really gone to town here. Veronica could see that Dick was extremely damn lucky to have got away with no other major injuries. She was actually wondering if the doctors were really as good as they should be in the circumstances.

“If there was another motive, we’re not going to find out about it until after Dick wakes up,” she considered. “He was unconscious when you found him in the alley?”

“Semi-conscious,” confirmed Mac, though her eyes seemed glued to Dick’s battered form and moreover his bruised face. “Um, he was slurring and stuff. Seemed to recognise me or understand what I was saying at one point but... but he was pretty out of it.”

Veronica wasn’t sure what to make of how freaked out Mac looked. She put it down to the shock, mostly. Seeing someone you knew, even if you didn't like them much, in this kind of state, it wasn’t fun. Even discovering a stranger beat up in the alley could easily have caused some bad reaction in her friend.

“Hey,” said Veronica as she approached Mac, putting an arm around her back. “You’re okay, right?”

“I’m not the one in the hospital bed, so I think I’m just fine,” she said absently, before turning to meet Veronica’s eyes. “I’m okay,” she promised, forcing a smile. “It’s just... It’s weird seeing him like this. Dick is annoying and stupid, a user of women, no doubt, but could he really deserve this?”

“I don’t know,” replied Veronica, shaking her head. “But I think we should find out.”

* * *

Dick was not feeling good. It had been a long time since the booze hit him this hard. The oblivion that came with alcohol, not to mention his 'medicinal herbs', was always welcome when he needed to forget, and he had gotten used to the hangovers and such that came after. This was different. This felt as if he had been run over by a truck.

His eyes didn't want to open. Dick was trying to prise his lids up but nothing was happening. There was a throbbing in his side, and in his other side, his arm, his foot, and his head. It really wasn't good, that was all Dick knew for sure.

Then there was a voice. It was far off at first and then a little nearer. Female, which made him want to smile, and yet even that felt painful somehow. He had a feeling he might have got lucky, and yet everything after the bar was very hazy, way more fuzzy than it should be after one good night out.

“Dick? Can you hear me?” she asked insistently.

The fog grew thinner and the voice had an owner that he could picture in his minds eye. It took too long to get as far as her name, and when he did find it buried deep in his memory, Dick was surprised.

“Mac?” he tried.

“I’m right here,” she told him, her hand laid gently on his uninjured arm.

“In my bedroom?” he checked.

At last Dick pushed his eyes open enough to look. Turning his head very slightly to one side he caught a sight of her, bright blue eyes and the shorter dyed-blonde hairdo she had recently acquired. He was so confused right now, and everything hurt so bad.

“You’re in the hospital, Dick,” said Mac gently, slowly so he couldn’t fail to understand. “You’re going to be okay, but you have some injuries...”

Dick frowned and then wished he hadn’t as his head ached terribly. His eyes were sore, like so many other parts of his body right now. He was in the hospital, but he couldn’t think what occurred to put him here like this.

“What happened?” he asked, hoping an explanation would be forthcoming.

Mac looked uncomfortable when he looked at her then.

“Um, we’re not sure” she explained. “I found you in the alley behind 09er. You were in a pretty bad way, not so much conscious. I called an ambulance and got you here.”

“You don’t like me,” he noted, at which Mac couldn’t help but smile.

“We haven’t always gotten along, Dick, but I don’t despise you enough to leave you in an alley to die.”

Dick might have been grateful for the sentiment if he could concentrate on the words. He just felt so out of it, and not in the good way. His eyes only focused for a few seconds at a time before things went fuzzy again. Breathing too deeply made a pain shoot down his left side, and every tiny movement of his limbs seemed to make him wince. Whatever had happened to him after the club, it was not good. Somebody wanted him to go down and stay there. They’d done a pretty good job on that too if he had landed up in the hospital feeling this crappy. For Cindy Mackenzie to feel bad for him, it had to be serious.

“Dick?” she prompted when he said no more, his eyes falling closed in a second. “Hey, Dick!” she tried again, but to no avail.

Mac huffed out a sigh at the realisation he was sleeping again and sat back in the uncomfortable chair to wait some more. A check of her phone showed it was now almost five in the morning. She really should have gone home and slept, but quite honestly, she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Leaving Dick alone here seemed so cold. He didn’t even know what had happened to him and a nurse would never give him the full story. Besides, if Veronica was going to look into this as a case to investigate, they would need all the information Dick could give them just as soon as he was conscious. No such luck with that so far.

Flipping to text mode, Mac fired off a message to Veronica.

\- Dick woke up but not for long. He’s confused.

\- Normal sitch for Dick.

\- This could be serious, V.

\- I know, I’m sorry. You should go home, get some sleep.

\- I’m fine. Good luck at the crime scene.

\- I’ll let you know if I find anything.

The conversation ended there, chiefly because there was nothing else to say. Veronica had to wait for daylight to properly check out the alley where Dick was found, mostly because it would be safer that way, partly so she could actually see anything at all. There was no use trying to convince Mac to leave the hospital if her mind was made up and Veronica knew it. Mac was glad of that because she really didn’t want a fight.

If anybody asked, Mac couldn’t really explain why she had a terrible need to stay here, beyond the obvious. Dick was alone in the world, but she didn’t exactly owe him anything. He had never been all that nice to her, and especially cruel in fact when she dated his brother. As much as Mac could stay here to glean evidence for the case, that could easily be gotten later. The hospital were set to call Veronica if there was any news since she went ahead and told an unsuspecting nurse that she was Dick’s younger sister. Still, Mac remained in her seat.

“Pretty crazy sitch, right, dude?” she said to Dick’s unconscious form, a vague smile playing at her lips.

He seemed different in this state, a lot smaller and weirdly fragile in the hospital bed with bandages covering various wounds and the strange lighting making him appear sickly and pale despite his permanent state of tan. Mac dreaded to think how pale she must look by comparison. Probably practically invisible against the off-white walls.

Leaning back in her seat, Mac continued debating whether to go home or stay. She was half way through a decent pro-con list in her head when her eyes fell very definitely shut and she was asleep.


	3. Chapter 3

When Dick woke up the next time, he felt a little clearer and in somewhat less pain. The bed was not his own, but he vaguely recalled being told he was in the hospital, that made sense, given the bandages and the beeping machine beside the too-solid bed. The vague after-effects of a headache lingered when he turned to see what the sound was that came from the other side of the bed. The light snoring was emanating from maybe the last woman he expected to be sat there.

Mac and Dick were never friends. They hung out a little in college, purely because his best friend was dating her best friend, but before that, in high school, things were just ugly between them. Mac had been Beav's one and only girlfriend, and as such, Dick chose to treat Mac like dirt. Sometimes he thought about it and regretted it so much. He told her once, back in Freshman year at Hearst, that he understood what his brother saw in her, that he was sorry for how he treated them both. That much had been true, and from that day on, he and Mac could at least be civil to each other when they were in mixed company. It didn't really change anything. The phrase 'indifferent acquaintances' came to mind, though Dick had no idea where he would've heard such a thing before.

Dick guessed maybe Mac could feel herself being watched because all of a sudden her eyes popped open and she was very much awake.

“Hey,” she said, dropping her legs down out of the chair she had been curled up into.

“Hey,” Dick tried to answer, though it came out hoarse and strained.

Mac reacted on automatic, reaching for the cup of water on the nightstand and offering it to the patient so he could take a few sips.

“Damn!” he declared then. “Did I get hit by a truck?”

“Er, no. No trucks,” Mac assured him. “Somebody attacked you, left you in an alley to bleed. You remember?”

Dick's forehead crinkled up as he tried hard to remember. The club was clear, the drinks, the girls. There was a hazy time right around when he decided to head home, and then nothing but darkness. Slowly, he shook his aching head.

“I got nothing,” he admitted, glancing at Mac. “Were you there?”

“After, not before,” she explained, suddenly feeling very awkward now that Dick was awake and fully aware.

He didn't seem to remember speaking to her in the alley, or even coming to earlier in the morning here at the hospital. Their conversation was probably caught somewhere in the fog of painkillers and the knock on the head Dick received. Mac decided not to worry too much about it.

“I feel weird,” he said then.

Mac took that as her cue to move. “Um, I should probably go get a nurse,” she said as she got up. She went for the door, but never made it through as Dick called her name. Mac turned to look at him, braced for whatever he might say next.

Somehow she always expected an insult with Dick, or at best a misguided pass. She only ever saw him look genuine once, and that was years ago. Plus it was followed by one of those misguided passes.

“Thanks,” he said simply. “Seriously, thanks.”

Mac only nodded in response, found a half smile, and then went off on her mission to find a nurse.

* * *

“So, what’s the latest, kid?” asked Keith, leaning back in the chair across the desk from Veronica.

He looked somewhat like his old self now, the more obvious injuries from the car crash having healed. Still, Veronica knew her father was far from well. The cane at his side gave him away, as did the almost constant wincing when he moved just the wrong way. There was a fair distance to travel yet before he was fully healed and ready to return to work. Convincing Keith of that was more of a full-time job for Veronica than even their caseload.

“Seriously?” she asked with a look. “You want me to involve you in cases? You’re not up to that yet, Pops,” she reminded him, shoving papers into a folder and getting up to put it in the filing cabinet.

“Hey, I taught you everything I know,” he argued.

“And I’m more than grateful,” his daughter assured him. “But this isn’t about your talents as a PI, and you know it. This is about your physical wellbeing. I need you to be better before you go throwing yourself back into this dangerous game we call a job.”

She meant it very seriously. So much of what Veronica and Keith said to each other was in jest, just playful father-daughter banter. Moments like this were in stark contrast to that, almost too serious, painfully so. She was sat on the front edge of the desk now, her hand on Keith’s shoulder, the one that didn't actually give him any pain.

“I know, honey,” he promised, his hand atop hers, and he flinched even making that minor movement. “I just... I’m not used to sitting on my behind all day. Don’t get me wrong, I have huge respect for Judge Judy, and laughing at the crap they sell on those infomercials takes up a good part of the day, but staying home alone, doing this recuperation thing? It’s beyond boring,” he explained. “C’mon, Veronica, throw the old man a bone. Just tell me about something that’s actually interesting, something that might require me to use my brain for thirty seconds?”

It was silly really. Veronica told her father plenty about the cases she was working on each night at dinner. Often not the details or names, because that would mean he could try and help out without her knowing. She had to prevent that until he was fully fit again. It was way too painful to think of him doing something stupid before he was healed and getting hurt worse. She couldn’t stand that.

Of course, she knew he wasn’t here just asking about cases on the off-chance. She had been called out in the night by a desperate Mac on a case that hadn’t even seemed like a case to begin with. Veronica had gone to see what was up with Dick out of worry for Mac and loyalty to Logan. The guy was her boyfriend’s BFF and that had to mean something, especially with Logan far away in the Middle East, fighting for truth, justice, and the American way.

“Mac thinks maybe the attack on Dick Casablancas wasn’t a cut-and-dry mugging,” she confessed at last. “She has a theory there’s more to it.”

Keith took in what Veronica said and mulled it over in his mind.

“Crimes aren’t always what they seem at first glance,” he agreed, stating a fact he and his daughter both knew only too well from past experience. “His wallet was gone?”

Veronica nodded. 

“And his cell. If it wasn’t a mugging, somebody wanted it to look as if it were, that’s for sure.”

“Does Mac have any particular reason for suspecting further foul play?” asked Keith.

“I don’t know exactly,” she said, getting up from the edge of the desk to walk back to her seat. “We didn’t get to talk much at the hospital. By the way, if they call the house, I’m Dick’s sister.”

“Of course you are,” Keith smirked and rolled his eyes at the same time. “And Mac?”

“Fiancé,” she confirmed. “Not sure she was all that happy with it, but then who would be?”

“Dick Casablancas is an acquired taste from what I remember of the kid,” he said thoughtfully. “Still, he’s had it pretty rough, I guess. Sadie leaving, Richard Senior and his business problems, all the trouble with Kendall.”

“Not to mention his brother,” said Veronica coldly.

She knew her dad was avoiding mentioning Cassidy to save her from the thought of him, but it was simply impossible to recall all Dick’s problems without thinking of the little brother everybody called Beaver. Even now it was hard to quantify it in her mind, to link together the cute little boy she had once known with the monster she had met on the roof of the Neptune Grand more than ten years ago now. The same boy who had been too shy to hardly look at a girl as a young teen was also a murderer, a rapist, and ultimately a suicide. Veronica couldn’t really be sorry he was dead, but trying to see it from Dick’s point of view, even from Mac’s perspective, she could understand why so much pain was felt after that night.

“Dick’s no saint,” she said after too long a pause, “but you should’ve seen him, Dad. Somebody meant business when they attacked him last night, and honestly, I’d be surprised if they needed to inflict that much damage just to take what they wanted. Knowing Dick, especially when he drinks, not to mention when he self-medicates, it would’ve been easy enough to get his cell and wallet from his pocket without him hardly noticing what happened, especially if there was a female available to make the lift,” she said seriously.

Keith was sure Veronica was right, but he took no comfort in it. If Dick had been attacked by someone for some other nefarious reason, that could mean vendettas, and things getting particularly ugly. As much as he understood Veronica’s need to do this kind of work, Keith wasn’t sure he would ever like it, not for a second.

“Veronica...” he began, but her phone buzzing on the desk took her attention.

“Well,” she said as she read the text from Mac, “according to this, our victim is back in the land of the living,” she told her father. “I guess the best way to know exactly what happened is to get my info straight from the source. Honestly though, I was kind of hoping to scope out the crime scene before I did the interview,” she said, more to herself than to Keith as she grabbed her keys and jacket to leave.

Keith’s hand shot out to grab her arm when she moved by him. Veronica stopped and looked down at him with a questioning gaze.

“Be careful, honey,” he urged her. “I know, I know, you’re fine and I’m crazy for caring, but please, be careful.”

He meant it, Veronica didn’t doubt that. As much as she had been doing this kind of thing, off and on since she was fifteen, she knew her dad still worried. She worried for him too, and rightfully so. His ‘accident’ a few months back sure was a wake up call about how dangerous their job could be sometimes, but quite honestly, that only made Veronica want to do it all the more. There was so much injustice in her home town. Neptune needed to be cleaned up, and the Sherriff and his flunkies sure weren’t going to get the job done. It was up to people like Veronica and Keith to make it happen. It was their duty, and Veronica would not give in.

“I’m always careful,” she reminded Keith with a smile, planting a kiss on his bald head. “Now come on, I’ll save you the cab fare home by dropping you off on the way to the hospital.”


	4. Chapter 4

There wasn’t much that Dick could tell Veronica about his suspected mugging. He barely remembered what happened inside of the nightclub never mind out in the alley or wherever else. She tried to ask him who he was with, if he recalled any shady characters hanging around. With the 09er being as exclusive as it was, she doubted anybody from inside would feel the need to rob Dick of his wallet and cell. Of course, that just made Veronica think more and more that maybe Mac’s theory held water. Outside of Dick’s room, she told her friend as much.

“It’s hard to think where a mugger would’ve come from. I mean, sure, the other end of that alley comes out in a less high society neighbourhood, but you’d have to be pretty dumb to risk a crime almost literally on your doorstep.”

“And like we said before, why do all that damage for a mugging?” said Mac, shaking her head. “He was so beat up, it doesn’t make sense, unless there was another motive.”

“Well, if there are any clues to be had, they don’t live here,” replied Veronica, putting her notebook and pen back into her bag. “I’m heading out to the crime scene, see what I can find there. It’s light enough now...”

“Excuse me, Miss?”

A voice behind her made Veronica turn sharply, a young nurse smiling sweetly at her then. Immediately she put on her best look of innocence, just in case.

“Can I help you?” she asked.

“Oh, no, I was hoping to help you actually,” she smiled. “You’re Mr Casablancas’ sister, right? I guess you’re the person to talk to about his aftercare.”

“Aftercare?” she echoed, sharing a look with Mac. “Well, er, yeah, I guess. Except me and my brother, we don’t actually live together.”

“Oh, okay,” said the nurse thoughtfully. “Well, obviously he can’t be allowed home if there’s no-one there to help him. With his injuries he’s going to need both supervision and assistance...”

“He lives with me,” said Mac so suddenly, Veronica physically flinched. “I... I can take care of him.”

It was the most unexpected thing she had ever heard, Veronica was certain, and the look on her face would’ve proved that if she didn't have to cover fast and seem happy about the fact Mac would be looking after her ‘dearest brother’. She supposed somebody had to be there for Dick in his hour of need, but she kind of assumed he would be in the hospital for a bit and then maybe he’d hire a private nurse to work alongside his housekeeper and that would be that. Veronica certainly hadn’t been prepeared for Mac to raise her hand and volunteer for the job.

“Fiancee, right?” the nurse checked with Mac who smiled and nodded.

“Cindy Mackenzie,” she introduced herself. “If there’s anything specific we need to know about Dick’s conditions and injuries, please tell me. I just want to help him any way I can.”

Veronica smiled a little then. Mac was smart enough to know that this way she would be getting all those useful details from nursey. Still, now she had said she lived with Dick she was probably going to have to follow through. Veronica felt a shudder run through her at the very idea of living in close quarters to that idiot. Sure, she felt bad that he got beat up, but that didn't mean she suddenly wanted to take care of him like a lost puppy. Veronica might actually feel more inclined to take in a lost puppy. It would probably be easier to house train.

“It’s okay, V”, said Mac then, a hand on her friend’s arm. “You go. I know you have a lot to do. I can handle things here. I promise to take good care of your big bro,” she smirked wickedly.

“Thanks, sis-to-be,” she smiled right back, moving to hug Mac then. “You’re maybe getting a little too good at this espionage thing, Q,” she whispered in her ear,

“I learnt from the best, Bond,” she whispered right back.

They parted then and Veronica headed off to the crime scene to see what else she could dig up. She didn't know yet what she expected to find, but then she rarely did know what the key piece of evidence would be until she stumbled upon it. If the day so far was anything to go by, she was likely to be surprised again yet!

* * *

“So really the only way to deal with the situation was to say you lived with Veronica or with me. Since you guys would probably kill each other within five minutes of co-habiting and I’m pretty darn sure you would not help Keith’s recovery at all, I volunteered.”

Mac explained things to Dick all in a rush. Honestly, she was fine with volunteering to be his live-in nurse, right up until she actually had to tell him she was going to. It was tough to know how he would take the news. He was Dick after all, and anything from a crass remark to all out tears was possible in his present state. Mostly in this moment he just looked confused, which was pretty normal, Mac thought.

“Why do I wanna live with you?” he asked, genuinely puzzled by the idea.

“Because you’re going to need help right now,” said Mac, looking mostly at her own hands in her lap, wondering why she had chosen to sit on the edge of the bed while she did this. “You won’t be walking so well for a while, and your arm is messed up. You’re probably going to feel pretty out of it for a few days, and the doctor thinks you’re going to need a helping hand, just for a little while.”

She wouldn’t look at him. Dick thought that was weird, but then Mac had always been different to any other chick he had ever known. The fact she was here right now, actively offering to take care of him, that made no kind of sense. Of course he knew she was the nice type who wanted to help people out, but nobody ever helped Dick with anything. Well, there was Logan, but that was different. Mac and Dick certainly weren’t buddies, not ever.

“Hey, so I get that you found me in the alley, you called 911 and all, because you’re the good Samaritan type or whatever, but why’d you stay here? Why’d you wanna help me?”

Mac opened her mouth and closed it again. She couldn’t explain it to Dick because she couldn’t explain it to herself. At best, she would have to say she wanted to be there for him because nobody else was going to be, but that sounded mean or perhaps full of pity, neither of which sat well with Mac.

“Because,” she said at last, glancing up to meet his eyes, “I’m too nice to condemn some other poor person to suffer having to be around you that much,” she joked with a smile she couldn’t help.

Though he tried to smile back, the expression looked somewhat painful. It wasn’t surprising given all the cuts and bruises. Mac almost felt bad for even trying to be amusing now.

“Where’d you live anyway?” asked Dick.

“In an apartment, a couple of streets away from the 09er actually,” she explained, pushing her hand back through her hair.

Mac didn’t know why she was embarrassed to admit she lived on the less-awesome side of town. After all, it wasn’t as if Dick didn't know she wasn’t rich, and Mac wasn’t ashamed not to be part of Neptune’s elite. Still, it felt weird saying she was offering to take Dick in to her pokey little dive when he was used to so much better. When he made an unimpressed face, Mac knew she had lost him.

“You don’t want to come stay with me,” she said, a statement not a question because it was clear as anything from his expression.

“I just think maybe it would be easier if you moved in with me,” he told her, immediately making a face. “Woah. That’s the first time I said that to a woman.”

Mac almost laughed at the way he said that. Honestly, just the idea of any kind of commitment to anyone had Dick running for the hills. Not that he was asking her to move in with him in that way. Not that he would be capable of running anywhere right now anyway.

“Since I’m pretty sure from the size of your pad that it has multiple spare rooms, I guess I could call one my own for a little while, as long as you need the help,” she shrugged.

It felt almost as strange to Mac saying that as it did for Dick when he asked her to move in. At best she was offering to be his live-in help, which had implicatons Mac didn't like any more than the prospect of being a live-in lover at Chez Casablancas. Shaking her head almost imperceptibly, she put all those crazy thoughts out of her head. It was easy to do when she took a good look at Dick and relived the moment she found him in the alley, all blood and bruises. He was cleaned up now but still a real mess. He had been through so much.

“You do know if anybody finds out you’re my temporary nurse, they’ll laugh their asses off,” he said then. “Hell, if I didn't think it’d kill me, I’d be laughing my ass off,” he realised aloud. “Unless you wanna wear the hot outfit that nurses used to wear...”

That was as far as he got before Mac actually did bust up laughing, slapping him in the shoulder like a reflex for his atttude. She immediately regretted it when Dick winced terribly.

“Oh, I’m sorry!” Mac quickly apologised. “I wasn't thinking, are you okay?”

“Some great nurse you are!” he told her sharply before the smirk broke through.

She probably had hurt him, but not half so much as Dick was pretending. It made her want to hit him again, but she didn't dare. It did make her laugh though, and as much as he could without hurting himself, Dick laughed too. His odd mood could at least be put down to the drugs. Mac really wasn’t sure what was happening to her, unless it was lack of sleep.

“I must be crazy,” she said more to herself than to him. “Seriously? I’m offering to move into Dick Casablancas' house as his own personal helper? You think they have a psych ward close by?” she asked with a smile that proved she was joking.

Dick didn’t answer, didn't even smile anymore. His eyelids were dropping shut and a yawn soon escaped his lips. With the slightest shake of his head, he let out a long sigh.

“You’re cool, Mackenzie,” he said softly, and then he was asleep again.

Mac couldn’t help but smile. “You’re not all bad either, Casablancas.”

* * *

Veronica could think of a hundred and one places she would rather be than a stinking alley behind a nightclub on a Saturday lunchtime. Unfortunately, this was the lot of a P.I.

“All those years of law school,” she muttered to herself, though it was her decision alone to turn her back on that life.

Veronica shone a flashlight into the darkest corners of the alley, noting the blood splatters on the concrete with some distaste. It was different when you knew the victim, even if you didn’t like the person all that much. There was a personal element and though Veronica was hardened to these things by now, having investigated even the murder of her own best friend, she could never fully shake the nasty feeling that gnawed at the pit of her stomach on these kinds of cases, involving people who had been a part of her life, however small or unwanted at times.

“What happened, Dick?” she said to herself, since obviously he was nowhere near.

With latex gloves covering her fingers and plastic baggies on hand, Veronica wasn't too worried about picking up any potential clues from the ground. A candy bar wrapper was more than likely just overspill from the dumpster at the other end of the alley, as was the wad of tissue, and the random pamphlet for a kids after-school club, but she grabbed each and every one just in case.

Taking one last look around, Veronica’s flashlight glinted off something shiny quite close to where Dick had to have been left to bleed. There was actually a spatter of red on the small blue tube when Veornica picked it up in gloved hands and inspected it. The familiar size and shape of the cylinder gave it away as a woman’s lipstick.

“Curiouser and curiouser,” said Veronica, dropping her potential clue into a bag and sealing it shut.

She pulled the gloves off inside out and shoved them in yet another bag so they could be safely disposed of. Her work here was as done as it could be for now. Veronica planned to talk to both Dick and Mac again later, when he was less drugged up and she was less shocked. Then there were people at the club, the doorman, the other patrons. Somebody had to know something, but most of the people she needed were probay hungover or sleeping, certainly not ready for visitors right now. Besides, Veronica had other cases that needed her attention too, and she really needed to be home at a reasonable hour tonight. Veronica she was expecting a Skype call from Logan. The thought of her boyfriend made her smile, though talking to him today gave her a new problem. Telling him about what happened to Dick would make him worry, but concealing the truth was tantamount to lying, something she and Logan had sworn not to do this go around.

Veronica blew out a long breath as she exited the alley and put her sunglasses back over her eyes when the sun hit her full force in the face. One tough question at a time was enough.


	5. Chapter 5

“I still can’t believe you’re doing this. Seriously, girl, did you take a blow to the head or something?”

Mac smiled at Wallace’s rant as they got out of their cars outside Dick Casablancas’ place of residence. Wallace was such a good friend, he had no qualms at all about helping when Mac asked for assistance in getting a whole bunch of stuff from her apartment across town to a friends house. It was only when Wallace found out who said friend was, the concept of it just wouldn’t fit in his head.

“I know it seems pretty wacky on the surface,” said Mac easily. “Honestly? If anybody would have told me a week ago I’d be willingly moving into Dick Casablancas’ bachelor pad, I’d say they needed to be committed, but he needs help. Who else is there to take care of him?”

“He has money,” said Wallace, looking up at the impressive building before them that proved his words. “Hiring a nurse or whatever has to be pretty easy for a guy like Dick.”

“I guess,” Mac considered. “But hired help doesn’t really care, and I doubt they would be here twenty four, seven,” she said thoughtfully, before shaking her head. “I don’t know, Wallace, he just seemed so... pathetic, lying there in the hospital bed. He’s been through something traumatic and with his family torn apart and Logan away... I don’t know, I guess I felt sorry for the guy.”

“Sympathy for the devil,” muttered Wallace. “That makes you an angel, Mackenzie.”

“Well, I do like Halo,” she told him with a smirk before they both laughed.

Mac opened up the trunk of her car and Wallace moved to do the same. Getting into the house was no problem. When everything else had been stolen from Dick, his keys remained in his pants pocket, latched to his belt by a key chain that clipped on. Mac hadn’t expected him to be quite so smart as to ensure his keys couldn’t go missing, but as Dick had said to her in the hospital this morning, all his best stuff was in his house and his car.

“Well, even you have to have some good sense, I guess,” she had told him, only half joking, apologising when she realised she had made Dick laugh and therefore bring himself pain.

Now here she was, outside of a place Mac was going to call home for a while. She didn’t know the duration of her stay exactly. It was hard to tell how long Dick would need help, but the doctors were saying at least a few weeks. They saw it as no big deal since Mac had told them she lived with ‘her fiance’ anyway, and she and Dick had to play it like they cared in front of the staff. It was weird how it wasn’t too hard to do, not even for Dick.

In her car and Wallace’s too, Mac had placed boxes of books and CDs, bags of clothes, and all her essentials, like toiletries and tech. It wasn’t as if she couldn’t drive home for anything she forgot and she was going to have to check in at her apartment to collect her mail on a fairly regular basis, but Mac didn’t want to be back and forthing it every five minutes. Dick told her she could bring as much stuff as she wanted and pick any room she liked that wasn’t already taken. He was being very accomodating, but then Mac supposed she was doing him a favour. It made her wonder if somehow the drugs they were pumping into Dick had got to her by osmosis as she sat by his bedside. This was such a weird situation.

“This is insane,” said Wallace as they headed in through the front door, a couple of boxes piled in his arms and a large bag on Mac’s shoulder.

“Wallace, I know you think I’m crazy, but-”

“I ain’t even talking about you moving in here,” he interrupted as they stepped inside. “Although that is nuts. This place is... I could fit my entire apartment in here three times over, and that’s just the first floor.”

“It’s big,” Mac nodded her agreement. “But it’s Dick. I’m thinking he’s the kind of guy for which size matters.”

“True dat,” muttered Wallace as he took a look around the place, dumping the boxes by the door until Mac decided where her things were going.

That was actually a task she wasn’t enetirely looking forward to. Wandering around in somebody else’s home when they weren’t there felt strange. Mac smiled thinking maybe she should have asked Veronica for tips on such a thing. At least Dick knew they were there. Mac was invited, she was supposed to be picking out a room and making herself at home. It made her wonder if she could ever really feel comfortable in a place like this.

Wandering through the living room, Mac found a large and beautifully shining kitchen that she had to assume was hardly ever used by Dick himself. Full length windows let in all of the world’s light and the most amazing view of the ocean. Mac headed for the French doors and let herself out onto the veranda. Her lungs filled up with warm, salty air and she smiled. For a person who usually preferred the indoors, she had to admit, this was pretty special.

“Maybe I can make myself at home,” she considered.

“Can’t knock the view,” Wallace agreed as he appeared beside her. “Looks as if there’s at least a couple of bedrooms that look out this way” he noted, moving across the veranda to peer up at the house.

“One of them is probably Dick’s room,” Mac considered, wondering if it was the best idea to choose to take the one right next door as her own.

On the other hand, if she was too far away and he had some kind of accident or whatever, she might never hear. There was no point to her being here if he was just going to fall down and die on her watch. Shaking her head, Mac turned to go back into the house and urged Wallace to follow her.

“So, I get that you’re a good person, and that Dick has nobody else to care,” said Wallace as he retrieved Mac’s boxes and followed her up the stairs. “Makes sense to me that V is looking into who did the guy over, if she thinks it’s more than your regular mugging. The Sheriff’s department has gone downhill even further since Lamb the second took over, so yeah, I get why she’s doin’ it. Still, I’m having problems with why you gotta move into this house. It’s just weird to me.”

Mac opened up a bedroom door cautiously and peered inside. It was definitely Dick’s personal space and she closed the door just as fast as she had opened it, moving along to the next one. That was a guest room, with the same epic view as downstairs. This was Mac’s room.

Wallace let out a low whistle. “Okay, I take it back,” he said, putting Mac’s boxes down by the bed. “You sure Dick doesn’t need another helping hand, ‘cause I available,” he said, patting his own chest and grinning when Mac turned to see.

“You know I’m not moving in here for the gorgeous view and the king size bed,” she said, taking a dive onto that very bed and revelling in the comfort of the soft duvet and an enormous mattress. “Not denying though, it’s a nice perk.”

Wallace sat down on the edge beside her and looked over at Mac. She could make jokes, they both could, but he had meant what he said before. It was very weird to him that she was moving in here to take care of a guy who had never been a friend to any of them, not in high school, not in college, not after. In fact he had been pretty nasty to Mac back in the day, and less than pleasant to Veronica too. Sure, he went through a lot with his parents and his brother, anybody deserved a little sympathy after that, but Dick was still Dick and for the most part he lived up to the name. Why Mac cared so much for his welfare, her friend just couldn’t fathom.

“You really think I’m crazy for being here?” she asked Wallace then, cracking one eye open to look at him.

“Yes and no,” he considered, shrugging his shoulders. “You’re a grown up woman, Mac, and you ain’t stupid. You gotta know what you’re doin’, right?”

She sighed, lifting herself up on her elbows, her eyes wide open now. Mac looked at Wallace and she considered her answer carefully. There were certain topics she avoided talking about to anyone, but Veronica most especially. Maybe she could tell Wallace what she had been thinking about lately, and even have him understand a little bit.

“Okay,” she said eventually, taking a deep breath. “When it comes to me and Dick, you’re right, we never have got along, not really, but the truth is, we should,” she tried to explain. “Of all the people in the world, there were only a handful that got close to Cassidy, and I know it was a long time ago, and I know it probably seems like I should have forgotten about him by now-”

“Nobody expects you to forget, girl,” said Wallace kindly, his hand on her shoulder. “Seriously, Mac, you can talk to me about this, it’s cool.”

“I know, and I appreciate that,” she told him with a smile. “But it’s not the same. To you, he was a bad guy, to Veronica too. It’s not like I don’t know that all the awful things he did were just that, awful. It’s a list of crimes nobody could forgive, nobody could be expected to, but... but me and Dick are two people, maybe the only two people, who have trouble seeing the Cassidy we loved and the terrible person he could be as the same guy. That’s a connection we’re always going to have, no matter what.”

Wallace considered what she was saying and knew Mac was right. He wished he had a clue what to say after her little speech there. Wallace was never once sorry that Cassidy ‘Beaver’ Casablancas was dead. The guy was a murderer, a rapist, a despicable human being. He did everybody a favour the night he took a dive from the roof of the Neptune Grand, at least that was how Wallace always saw it from that day to this. Now he had to see it all from another point of view that he hardly ever considered before. Mac had loved that guy, and obviously Dick had to. A boyfriend was one thing, a brother was something else. Maybe the dude had suffered as much as Mac, potentially even more so. Certainly right now in his beat up state, Wallace could see why he needed not just a nurse but maybe a friend too. With a sigh, he shook his head.

“You a better person than me, Mackenzie,” he said at last. “No way could I look at all this the way you do and come up with a plan to babysit Dick Casablancas with a smile on my face. Not even for this view and this damn comfy bed!”

She laughed like a bell at the look on his face if nothing else. He was kidding around and she needed that. In all of this, she needed to remember to laugh sometimes.

“Thanks, Wallace,” she said, for nothing in particular, levering herself up off the bed and encouraging him to come with. “Let’s get the rest of the stuff from the cars.”

* * *

“I’m not asking you to tell me any great secrets of your precious club! I’m trying to help one of your best customers find out who attacked him in the alley and left him for dead!” said Veronica, starting to lose her temper as the bar manager of the 09er evaded her every question.

“Lady, it’s like I told you, I gave the Deputy who come here all the info he asked for. No law says I gotta give you anything.”

Veronica bit down on her tongue before she said something she shouldn’t, something that would lead to making a bad situation worse. Trust the staff at the prestigious 09er to be assholes. It didn’t mean they were involved in what happened to Dick, but Veronica was already making it her mission to find something to bust these idiots for. As if it cost them anything to give her a little info, a look at the security camera footage from the night of the incident. Shaking her head she turned away, moving towards the doors. She was pretty sure she heard a mutter of ‘bitch’ behind her back. Whether that opinion was reached from today alone or the stellar rep she had gained in her teen years, Veronica couldn’t say and didn’t care much. She had bigger fish to fry.

Driving back to the office, she wasn’t entirely certain whether she would find the office empty or not. It was somewhat comforting to see Mac behind the front desk.

“Hey, V,” she greeted her with a smile.

“Remind me again of all those wonderful reasons I had for moving back to Neptune and rejoining the ranks of the private dicks,” she urged Mac. “Actually, don’t. It’ll just depress me more. How was the moving?”

“All moved in,” Mac told her happily. “How goes the investigation?”

“Slow,” confirmed Veronica with a heavy sigh as she flopped onto the couch. “Nobody at the 09er is talking. You’d think I was a journalist trying to out them for drug crimes, or a health inspector about to shut them down. Does nobody care about their fellow man anymore?”

“Is that a rhetorical question?” asked Mac immediately.

Veronica smiled to herself. “I’d tell you if I knew. Those people aren’t my only avenue of investigation, but it’d be a whole lot easier to figure out what happened if Dick could remember anything.”

“Well, he’s getting out of the hospital in the morning. Maybe when he’s all comfortable in his own bed and everything, he’ll remember more.”

“Maybe,” Veronica considered, leaning her head back and closing her eyes a moment. “And how are you doing with your decision to get comfortable in Dick’s guest room?” she asked, genuinely interested to know.

It still seemed odd to Veronica that Mac would want to be making nice with the town fool, especially after all these years. Of course, on closer consideration, all these years might be exactly what had made the difference. Veronica saw no signs that Dick had matured at the high school reunion, but Logan assured her he had his moments. His family falling apart took its toll, that was for sure, and to that at least, Veronica could relate. She supposed Mac could too, and if anybody understood the conflicted feelings brought on by the death of Dick’s brother years ago, it had to be Mac.

“I’m okay,” said Mac then. “It is a beautiful house, with the most amazing view. Huge refrigerator, a bathtub I could swim lengths in, and wifi throughout. I will not suffer,” she assured her friend with an audible smile.

“I’ll say you won’t,” Veronica agreed, opening her eyes again and sitting up straighter. “Except for enduring Dick’s company twenty four, seven and being at his beck and call.”

“Logan lived with him for years and he coped okay,” considered Mac. “Speaking of, have you guys talked lately?”

“Last night,” her friend nodded, getting up from her seat and stretching out - no position was comfortable for as long as she was in limbo on this investigation. “Logan’s doing good. I had to tell him about Dick, which made him worry, but the fool trusts me to figure it out and see the bad guys brought to justice.”

“That does not make him foolish,” said Mac reassuringly, not entirely certain V was joking at this point. “It means he has faith in you, and so do I.”

“Thanks, Mac,” replied Veronica with genuine warmth, because it honestly did mean a lot. “Well, if I’m not going to get anything from the victim or potential witnesses, I guess it’s time to dig a little deeper,” she said, heading for the filing cabinet and pulling out a large plastic bag. “Evidence from the crime scene,” she announced, presenting the contents of many more smaller baggies, each with a potential clue inside, to her friend and colleague.

“Nice,” said Mac, eyeing the collection of bagged trash on her desk with some distaste.

“Yeah, but it might throw up some answers yet,” Veronica told her. “You think you could voodoo up the rostas for the 09er staff?” she asked then, gathering up the baggies to take through to her own office. “I tried to get copies from the manager, but no go. He wouldn’t even let me as far as the staff only door to sneak a peek of his paperwork surreptitiously!”

“The fiend,” Mac dead-panned, turning back to her computer. “I’m on it.”

“I guess you’ll be working from home a lot from tomorrow,” said Veronica from the doorway. “Well, from a home anyway.”

“I guess,” replied Mac, never turning away from her work, fingers constantly tapping on the keyboard. “But there’s not much you need me to be physically here for, right? I mean, I could even have the calls diverted to my cell if it helps you out?”

“Maybe,” Veronica nodded pointlessly. “We’ll see how things go. Right now, I still have a lost pure-bred, a cheating husband, and a potential thieving maid to catch before I quit tonight, and that’s before I get back to the prince that played Kick the Dick,” she explained, letting out a long noisy sigh.

“A woman’s work is never done,” said Mac in mock-sympathy.

“Amen, sister-friend!”


	6. Chapter 6

Mac had kind of expected it to feel strange when she welcomed Dick home to his own house, and it did. Knowing she was going to be staying here with him, playing nursemaid for lack of a more appropriate term, it suddenly seemed like maybe the dumbest idea that Cindy Mackenzie ever had in her life. She thought so, right up until Dick tried to get out of the car and failed to do so by himself. He really was a mess still and he needed help. There was nobody else to give assistance, Mac was the whole list all by herself. Taking a deep breath, she came down from the porch.

“Welcome home,” she said lamely.

“Like I always say, it’s not a real homecoming without a hot babe on the doorstep,” said Dick with a grin that only failed him when he was forced to try to move any part of his body.

Mac winced on his behalf and tried to help as best she could. On any normal day, she would have blushed like a crazy person from a guy like Dick calling her hot. He was teasing her and she knew it, but honestly, she never had completely gotten over her embarrassed reaction to those kind of compliments from anyone. Now Dick had his arm around her waist and Mac was forced to put hers around him too, just so he had enough support to walk to the front door. This was how it was going to be now, this amount of closeness, for as long as Dick’s sprained ankle meant he couldn’t walk well unaided, as long as he had his other arm in a sling, until he was back to full strength. Mac didn’t allow herself to think about it long enough for it to feel strange. She concentrated on the fact she was being helpful, not on the feeling of hot muscled body against her own.

“Um, I hadn’t really thought about the stairs,” she said as they made it in through the front door.

The cab driver brought Dick’s bag in and dumped it in the hallway, looking impatient about getting paid. 

“Dude, do you take Paypal? ‘Cause all my cash and cards were totally stolen when this happened,” said Dick, making reference to his injuries.

“Oh, I got it,” said Mac, helping Dick to sit down at the bottom of the stairs.

She pulled her wallet from the back pocket of her jeans and peeled off a few notes, hoping it was enough to cover the fair. The cab driver smiled and left with a muttered thanks. Mac sighed and closed the door behind him.

“I can totally pay you back later,” Dick assured Mac. “Man, it’s good to be home.”

“Don’t be too happy. We still have stairs to tackle, unless we set you up down here for now...” she considered, looking around at the layout.

It was all pretty open plan, and even if they made one of the back rooms into a temporary bedroom for Dick, that would mean moving all of his stuff down instead of just him up. Mac realised she was making this more complicated than it actually was.

“Dude, check out what I have going here!” said Dick suddenly, getting Mac’s attention.

Using his one good arm, he was levering himself up, one step at a time on his butt, sprained ankle raised up so he didn’t bump it on the stairs. Mac might have been impressed if he didn’t look so ridiculous. Her hand went over her mouth so she didn’t laugh, though it was tough, especially when Dick was looking so darn proud of his supposedly ingenious plan.

“Wow,” said Mac eventually, sure she could without chuckling. “I don’t even know why I’m here. Looks like you have it covered,” she remarked, following him up the stairs.

Of course when Dick recahed the top, he got into trouble. There was no way to get back up onto his feet with only one good arm and one foot he could put weight on. Mac gave him all of ten seconds to consider options before she took pity on him.

“Okay. Let’s get you to bed,” she said, reaching to help. “And if you make that into something dirty, I’m going to drop you right back down these stairs,” she warned.

“Man, you’re strict,” said Dick with a smirk he couldn’t help. “Y’know I don’t think threatening the patient will get you any nursing points or whatever.”

“That might matter if I was craving the nursing career option. Since I plan on sticking with my computer skills, not so sure it makes a difference,” she told him as they headed for Dick’s room.

By the time they reached the bed, Mac did kind of drop Dick, though she hadn’t planned on it. For all that Mac wasn’t weak of body or mind, Dick was a lot bigger than her and much of him was dead weight against her right now. Hefting him around was not easy. Thankfully now he was to his bed, she couldn’t imagine having to get him anywhere else for a while. The bathroom was right there across the room, and if Mac did have to help him get that far, it wouldn’t be that hard or that often.

Dick got his own legs up onto the bed and leaned back against the pillows comfortably.

“This is sooooo much better than a hospital bed!” he exclaimed happily. “Don’t get me wrong, the doctors were pretty cool, and some of the nurses were hot, plus they have the best drugs in town, but the beds are not comfortable.”

“Well, here we have all your home comforts,” said Mac, business-like because it was easier than over-familiarity right now. 

She pulled the small table over from the wall so it was within reaching distance of the bed. On it was the remote for the TV at the end of the bed, the controller for the X-Box that was set up there too, a bottle of water, and the magazines that had arrived by subscription.

“I should go grab your bag so we can figure out what pills you have to take when,” she considered aloud, speaking to Dick though she never looked at him and really didn’t require an answer. “You want anything to eat?”

That one did need a response, and yet she didn’t get one. Mac tapped Dick on his uninjured ankle until his eyes opened.

“Hey, Sleeping Beauty!” she prompted. “You want food?”

“I could eat,” he agreed with a grin. “Did you just call me a beauty? ‘Cause, babe, I’m not sayin’ you’re wrong, but us guys prefer handsome or studly or...”

“I’m going downstairs!” said Mac with a huff, remembering too late how dangerous it was to say anything to Dick that sounded even vaguely like a compliment or a sexual remark.

Left alone, Dick let out a long breath and closed his eyes again. Despite how often he had been asleep at the hospital, he still felt kind of tired. The doctor said it was normal, that it was all to do with the shock of what happened, as well as the drugs he was on, the painkillers and all.

Dick still remembered next to nothing about what happened to him the night of the attack. Even the stuff before that was fuzzy as hell. It was weird because he was pretty good with drinking these days. It took a lot for him to be so wasted that he forgot the whole night, but then the doc had said the crack to his head might have caused the memory loss. Dick's hand went up to feel the place on his head where he had taken the blow. There was still a slight bump there and Dick winced when his fingers ran over it. He looked down at his other arm then, in the plaster cast and tied up in a sling. Down further, bandages peeked out from under his T-shirt, holding his cracked ribs in place, and then there was his ankle, bound up to keep the sprain from giving him too much trouble.

“Dude, you are such a mess,” he muttered to himself. “But hey, you probably deserved it anyway.”

Outside the door, Mac stopped short of walking in, her hand stilled on the handle when she heard Dick talking to himself. She wasn’t absolutely sure of what he said, but it sounded a lot like Dick telling himself he deserved what happened to him. Mac had an urge to storm right in there and tell him that was untrue, but honestly, she couldn’t do that, because Mac didn’t know if it were true or not.

It was hard to believe that anyone, even Dick, deserved the beating he had taken, but she knew better than anyone the mouth he had on him, not to mention his reputation for sleeping with just about any woman who got in his path. There was a chance he had done something that triggered anger in another, and that had resulted in this attack. Whether or not that counted as Dick deserving what he got, Mac couldn’t really say, not without knowing the details, but she didn’t like the sound of self-pity. It was so un-Dick somehow. Of course, there was a chance she heard him wrong anyway.

“Here we are,” she said, deliberately announcing her entrance. “All the colours of the rainbow,” she smiled, dumping four bottles of pills onto the table with everything else. “The blue ones are one every four hours, the little pink ones are two with meals, three times a day. Then the white is just at night, right before you sleep, and the yellow are as needed, if the pain flares up.”

“I’m not gonna remember all that,” said Dick with a frown.

“Me either,” Mac agreed. “I’ll make a chart,” she smiled, reclaiming the bottles and shoving them into her pockets. “I mean, you wouldn’t expect anything less from your resident computer geek, right?”

“I guess not,” Dick agreed, not even raising a smile at her joke, Mac noted. “Mac, how come you’re here?”

“Dick, we went over this,” she sighed, feeling awkward again. “You need help and...”

“No, I don’t mean the whole helping me out thing, which is cool by the way, I don’t know if I actually said that yet?”

“You did,” she recalled. “Anyway, somebody has to do it.”

“Yeah, but don’t you have a job or whatever?” asked Dick then, the point to his original question, Mac now realised. “I heard something about you working at Kane Software...”

“Actually, that didn’t pan out,” she explained, shaking her head. “I work for Mars Investigations now, helping out Veronica until her dad is back on his feet, and then... well, if they still need me, I’ll stay, and if not...” she trailed off, shrugging her shoulders.

“Wow,” said Dick, apparently impressed. “I mean, I don’t exactly have to worry about what I’m gonna do, ‘cause there’s always money, but you’re not so much rolling in cash.”

“Definitely not,” Mac confirmed with a humourless laugh. “But I get by, and hey, for the next couple of weeks or so, I got the fanciest digs in town,” she smirked, gesturing to the house around her.

Dick had to agree with her, though he never said it. He was so damn tired it was insane, and more than a little overwhelmed that someone like Mac was here, offering to take care of him. Nobody ever did that for Dick, not unless they were paid to. When he thought way back, Dick vaguely remembered his mom being around when he was very young, but as he got older, she got busier. There were maids and cooks and nannies, but it wasn’t the same. Dick had been taking care of himself in a lot of ways since he was maybe seven or eight. It never seemed to occur to anybody else to give a damn about him, except for Logan, and that was just a bro thing, something Dick was pretty sure he could never have with a chick. Mac was different, she was special. He knew the reasons why too, but Dick wasn’t willing to think about them right now, if ever.

“Dick?” she asked then, concerned about the strange look on his face. “Are you okay? Do you need anything?”

“I’m good, just tired,” he told her, yawning right after as if to prove the point.

“Okay,” she said, nodding her head. “Well, you get some rest, and I’ll be right next door. Just holler if you need anything.”

Dick’s eyes closed within a second and he never did answer. Mac wasn’t concerned. The doctor had said he would need extra sleep for the first few days until his body recovered fully from the shock and adjusted to the amount of drugs he was taking. Mac moved to leave and then doubled back, grabbing the comforter from the bottom of the bed and covering Dick over. With the covers tucked up under his chin and his blonde fringe falling into his eyes, he was almost cute. Mac’s fingers itched to move his hair off his face but she thought better of it. This was a grown man she was looking at. More than that, this was Dick. She had to remember that, it was important.

Taking herself out of the door and along to the next room that she had made her own, Mac sat down lotus style on the bed with her computer in her lap. She pulled Dick’s pill bottles from her pockets and started making up a quick chart that would remind both of them when he needed to take his drugs, then she had work to do for Veronica. For as long as Dick was sleeping, she may as well dig into this stuff. At least it took her mind off why she was really here, and how awkward her decision could prove yet.

An email popped up after a few minutes, and Mac wasn’t surprised to see it was from Veronica. It seemed she had been looking into the staff lists that Mac had ‘appropriated’ from the 09er’s database, and there was something interesting in there. Though she said herself it might be a long shot, two of the bartenders who were working the night Dick was attacked had kids that attended an after school club, a flyer for which Veronica had found in the alley when she went to check out the crime scene. As much as it really did seem unlikely that there was a real connection there, Mac knew Veronica would follow it up, not least because they had very little else to go on right now. With the 09er staff not so much talking, until Dick remembered something himself, this was all they had.


	7. Chapter 7

Mac was concentrating on her work when she thought she heard a sound. At first she dismissed it as something outside or maybe just her imagination, but then she heard it again, a little louder. Somebody was yelling. That somebody was Dick.

“Damn it,” Mac muttered, putting her laptop down carefully and hopping off the bed.

She hurried down the hall to Dick’s room and pushed open the door. Though his eyes were still closed, it was evident that it was him who was calling in his sleep. Mac wasn’t sure if he was having a nightmare or a full on flashback. If he were suddenly remembering what happened the night of the attack, it might be a mistake to wake him, but Mac had to think of Dick’s health above all else. He was throwing himself around some as he yelled, his uninjured arm flinging out so suddenly that Mac was glad she hadn’t gotten any closer yet or she might have been struck.

“Dick?” she called uncertainly. “Hey, Dick!” she tried again, a little louder this time.

On some level, he had to have heard her because he stopped with the flailing and moaning for a few moments. Mac moved in closer, from the left side since that arm was less likely to start waving again in its injured and secured state. She never really had to deal with this before. Nobody she knew had crazy nightmares and the like, and for the life of her Mac wasn’t sure whether waking Dick was the right thing to do or not. She didn’t want him to hurt himself, but at the same time waking someone from a nightmare could be dangerous, or so Mac thought. Certainly waking suddenly from sleep walking could do damage, she wasn’t absolutely sure about bad dreams.

Another moan emitted from Dick and he threw his body away from her. Mac just couldn’t risk letting this go on any longer. Carefully, she approached Dick’s back and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.

“Dick, wake up!” she told him loudly. “It’s just a dream, wake up!”

He came to very suddenly, flipping onto his back with his eyes open very wide. Mac pulled her hand back instantly and just stared down into those wide eyes that stared back at her. She didn’t want to say anything. Honestly, Mac just didn’t know what the right words were. After a long moment that was probably no more than thirty seconds but felt like thirty minutes at least, Dick’s uninjured arm came up, his hands running over his face.

“What the hell happened?” he asked.

Though Mac wasn’t sure if he was talking to himself or her, she replied anyway.

“You seemed to be having a nightmare,” she told him, noting the sweat on his face and neck now. “Or maybe a flashback?”

Dick frowned hard, glancing at Mac again. Her words made sense and yet he wasn’t sure what to make of them. A flashback. She had to mean to the night he was attacked. He tried to remember the dream that he had been having, the nightmare, he was pretty sure it had been a nightmare, and yet as much fear and panic as it conjured inside him, as fast as his heart was beating because of it, he could remember no details whatsoever.

“I don’t know”, he admitted. “I was... Maybe it was a flashback,” he admitted, “but if it was, it’s gone now.”

Mac let out a breath she hadn’t known she was holding. Whether it was relief or disappointment that made her sigh like that, she wasn’t sure herself. Mostly she was just glad the nightmare was over, and that Dick hadn’t hurt himself too badly. Momentum carried her down until she sat on the edge of the bed, and instinct made her straighten the covers, checking he was comfortable.

“I’m sorry,” he muttered so quietly she almost didn’t hear.

“What for?” asked Mac, wondering at the oddly timed apology.

Dick shook his head.

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “You shouldn’t have to deal with all my crap.”

Mac didn’t know how to tell him that she didn’t mind, because that made the kind of sense that’s not. Maybe his nightmare hadn’t been about the attack, maybe it was something else. She had to swallow hard when she realised that perhaps it went back much further in his consciousness than that, to the days of his childhood and Cassidy being a part of his life. Maybe to the night his little brother had died. Mac didn’t have the words to ask something like that, or the right ones to tell him that she had nightmares too, given the nature of some of those.

“Um, it’s time for your pills,” she said suddenly, getting up fast from the bed and heading for the door. “You need to eat with those. You want me to make something? Or we could order in?”

Dick was still staring out of the window for a while and then suddenly he looked at her again, patented Dick Casablancas smile in place as he replied to her question.

“Pizza’s always good.”

“Now that’s something we more than agree on,” she told him, finding a smile of her own. “I’m guessing Meat Lover’s Deluxe?”

“Dude, how’d you know that?”

“Lucky guess.” Mac chuckled, rolling her eyes. “I’ll be back.”

Dick watched her go, the door almost closing behind her, and then he breathed. It was tough being a guy sometimes. He knew there was that song that started with ‘sometimes it’s hard to be a woman’ and he guessed maybe that was true, but honestly, dudes had it tough too. Trying to be cool in front of a chick so she didn’t freak out on you was hard when you felt so messed up. Not that Mackenzie seemed like the kind to freak over somebody else’s nightmare, but Dick couldn’t deal with telling her how shook up he felt anyway. That would be way too weird.

By the time she ordered pizza and it got delivered, Mac would never know how scared Dick had been by whatever his own mind had conjured. Hopefully that wouldn’t happen again for a good long while, though he wasn’t so sure. Nightmares were pretty regular for him, and worse when he couldn’t self-medicate as he would like. Maybe having Mac move in here was a really dumb idea, but it was only temporary. He could handle it for a week or two and then she would be gone. Dick wasn’t sure why he felt weird about the part where she left when they hadn’t even been living together for a whole day yet. For now, he would blame the drugs and the nightmare. Later, he would worry about the real reasons.

* * *

Veronica felt just a little weird about hanging around outside a primary school’s gates when she had no kid of her own to collect. It was a couple of hours after the school day proper ended, but after school club would be done in just a few minutes. Veronica looked down at her phone, bringing up the photographs of Stephanie Masters and Missy Stone, two women who both bartended at the 09er and also had kids who attended this particular club. There was every chance they wouldn’t talk to her, maybe because their boss had told them not to, maybe just because they didn’t want to. If they talked, Veronica knew they may know little or nothing about the attack on Dick a few nights ago, but she had to try. This was the only lead she had right now, and damn if she didn’t know already that she was clutching at straws.

“When did that ever stop me before?” she muttered to herself, stepping closer to the gates as the kids began to file out.

Veronica lowered her sunglasses and scanned the selection of parent types greeting their little ones. Spotting one of the moms she was looking for led to her finding both as they talked together, their little ones running around playing within a few feet of them.

“Yahtzee!” said Veronica to herself as she strolled on over.

She hoped rather than believed that Stephanie and Missy would be forthcoming. In front of their kids, she would have to be careful what she asked, but if she could just arrange to meet with them some other time for some proper questioning, it was all she needed.

“Ms Masters? Ms Stone?” she said as she approached them.

“Can we help you?” asked the first, a shorter blonde with a scowl that seemed to come naturally.

“I’ve seen you before,” said Missy, tall and statuesque with long dark hair, and a fast fading smile now she saw Veronica. “You were at the 09er, asking a whole lot of questions.”

“Guilty as charged,” declared Veronica, holding up her hands in mock surrender. “But nobody is in trouble, it’s nothing sinister that I’m trying to do here,” she promised, reaching into her pocket and pulling out her badge. “I’m a private investigator, my name is Veronica Mars, and I’m just trying to get some details about what happened to a client of mine. He was attacked in the alley out back of the club last Friday night.”

“You’re not a cop, so we don’t have to tell you anything,” said Missy, folding her arms across her ample chest. “Portia, let’s go!” she called to her daughter and was soon storming away at a pace.

“Sorry about her,” said Stephanie, blowing her bangs off her forehead. “Strangers around the school grounds make everybody antsy these days, but it’s not like you’re a weirdo or anything,” she said, nodding towards the badge still grasped in Veronica’s hand. “Last Friday night you said? I heard somebody took a beating, but I didn’t see anything, sorry,” she admitted as her son came rushing to her side and she absently ruffled his hair.

He was blond and cute as a button. Veronica hadn’t known Dick at that age, but she would bet he looked like that once. Thinking such things only made her feel more sympathy for what happened to him. He was an ass these days but he was still a person, and for once, Veronica was pretty sure the guy had not deserved his fate.

“If you do think of anything that might be useful, could you please give me a call?” she asked of Stephanie, handing her a card. “Or maybe if you have any co-workers from that night who might be willing to talk to me?”

“I don’t know about asking the other bartenders,” she said, even as she took the card and pocketed it. “It sucks some guy got beat down, but he’s not dead or anything, right? He’ll live through a few bruises. I got a son to raise on little enough funds already without angering the boss man, y’know?”

“I understand,” Veronica nodded. “Thanks anyway.”

Stephanie Masters and her little boy walked away then and Veronica let out a weary sigh. It had been a long shot from the get go, and she was walking away from this place hardly any further forward than when she arrived. That said, Missy’s need to get away from her might mean something. Could just be like her boss, a dislike for any kind of authority figure, or she could have something to hide. Veronica would keep that in mind as she continued her investigation.

Heading for the gates, she was looking in her purse for her keys more than where she was going. Suddenly she heard her name and glanced up suddenly to find a familiar face right in front of her.

“Hey, Jade,” she greeted her happily, immediately crouching down to the height of the little girl at her side. “Hey, Valentina. Wow, I swear you’ve grown another inch since I saw you last.”

“No, I didn’t, silly,” she giggled.

“Well, it won’t take you long to catch up to my height, that’s for sure,” said Veronica, standing up to her full height and still feeling short beside Weevil’s statuesque wife. “How are things going with you guys?”

“They’re going,” said Jade with a look that Veronica understood a little too well. She knew Weevil was back running with the biker gang and how his wife felt about it. Veronica opted to stay clear of the cross fire. She well understood why a woman would not want her husband mixed up in all of that. At the same time, she was well aware of Weevil’s reasons for behaving the way he was of late. Thankfully, both halves of the couple let her stand outside of their disagreements and just be a friend of the whole family, which Veronica much appreciated.

“Well, I should get going. I was just here to interview a couple of witnesses, but honestly? Neither of them were all that forthcoming,” she explained with a sigh.

“I did think this was a weird place for you to be hanging out” Jade noted with a smile. “But I’m glad I ran into you. Eli was just saying last night that he really wanted to catch up with you sometime soon, and that maybe we could invite you to dinner. How are you fixed for tonight?”

“Oh, that’d be great, but I really can’t tonight,” said Veronica awkwardly.

“Please, Veronica!” said Valentina, bouncing at her mother’s side. “Come to our house! You can see my dolls and my new computer game and we can play!”

Veronica smiled at the little girls enthusiasm, marvelling one more time that this was the daughter of Eli ‘Weevil’ Navarro, hardened leader of the PCH biker gang. At such a young age, she already had that girlish smile and ability to twist just about anyone around her little finger inside thirty seconds. Veronica had to respect that.

“Well, maybe Friday, if that’s good for you?” she asked Jade more than Valentina.

“Friday is great,” she said with a wide smile. “Seven o’clock, okay?”

“Seven it is, thanks,” Veronica agreed, before the women parted ways.

She was smiling genuinely as she headed back to her car. It was quite a while since she had dinner with anyone but her dad, and most of the time they barely managed to get a meal together that wasn’t rushed or full of shop talk. It would actually be kind of nice to catch up with Weevil and his family, to talk about other things and eat a meal that wasn’t ordered in or made by her own hand. Maybe this trip hadn’t been a total bust after all.

* * *

“Oh my... You are so dead!” Mac laughed heartily as she hit the combo on her controller and her character blew Dick’s avatar all to hell.

“Dude, that is so not fair!” he declared, watching the screen as his character all but imploded before his eyes.

Still it was hard not to be impressed. Mac had supreme skills at video games, and that he had never really expected. He knew she could hack and all that geek stuff, but he never thought for a second she would be up on her Call of Duty and Assassins Creed. Hours had passed since they began duking it out with complimentary pizza and soda. Dick was laid out on his bed, propped against the headboard, whilst Mac sat further down towards the foot of the bed, supported by a stack of pillows. They blew their way through battle after battle, game after game, digging into the classics now. Mac’s latest triumph was beating the crap out of Dick at Mortal Kombat. She was winning almost everything and though he complained about it, Mac noticed that he hadn’t stopped grinning yet. She liked that.

“There is no way you can be this good at so many games,” he told her.

“Why, because I’m a woman?” asked Mac with a look, though she was trying not to laugh all the same.

“Well, yeah,” he considered honestly, “but mostly because... well, you’re smart. You should’ve been way too busy with homework and then actual work to have time to get really good at this stuff.”

“All natural talent, baby,” she declared, stifling a yawn. “Wow, when it did get this late?” she asked then, noticing that beyond the window the sky was mostly dark and the moon was in view already.

“No idea,” said Dick, yawning himself as he dropped the controller onto the bed, shifting his body a little amongst the blankets.

He looked uncomfortable when Mac glanced back at him, though she wasn’t sure why. Could have been his injuries or maybe he wanted to use the bathroom again. Mac was okay with helping him to the door of the en suite and thankfully Dick could cope alone from there, so it wasn’t an issue. She opened her mouth to ask Dick what was up when he spoke first.

“Am I supposed to get some painkillers or something?” he asked, wincing a little as he shifted on the bed.�“Er, yeah,” said Mac, checking her watch and then reached into the drawer of the nightstand to retrieve the correct pill bottle.

Dick was duly handed his dose and a soda to wash them down with, whilst Mac cleared away the empty pizza boxes and straightened up the bed.

“So, I should probably...” she said, hiking her thumb over her shoulder towards her own room. “Sleep would be good, right?”

“I don’t know.” Dick squirmed some. “If you’re tired, you go. I’m not done here.”

Mac watched him reach painfully for the controller and try to start up the game again. He was tired, she knew he was, and yet Dick didn’t want to sleep. The nightmares from before had clearly shaken him up, whether they were from the recent past or much further back. It wasn’t all that late yet and it wasn’t as if Mac had anywhere to be early tomorrow.

“Hey, I’m not letting you get in extra practice just so you can kick my butt next time!” she declared, resuming her place on the bed. “Throw me those pillows, Casablancas, and prepare for total domination!”

“Hey, I got nothing against dominant chicks,” he said with a saucy grin.

Mac would’ve thrown one of the pillows right back at him if she didn’t have to worry about aggravating an injury. Instead she just shot him the severest look she could manage through the laughter that threatened and then turned her attention back to the screen.

“And y’know, you’re only beating me so easy because I’m not up to my usual physical standard,” Dick continued, as Mac flipped through the menu screens of the game. “I get over all this crap, and your ass is mine, Mackenzie.”

Mac decided not to comment or even think too much on the connotations of that remark. She stayed facing the screen and concentrated purely on beating Dick’s character into the ground one more time. He didn’t seem to mind all that much, he just wanted to be doing something that wasn’t sleeping. Mac was okay with that. They could both catch up on rest tomorrow, and hopefully without any more nightmares to disturb either of them. For now they were just having fun, and that was something Mac never expected when she agreed to move in here, especially not on the first day.


	8. Chapter 8

Mac woke up with the sun in her eyes and the rank taste of day old pizza on her tongue. She vaguely recalled video games and junk food with Dick, but everything after that was hazy. Honestly, Mac couldn’t even remember finishing the games and going to bed. The first two nights they had done this, she had been fine, but perhaps staying up too late and not sleeping enough during the day to compensate was catching up to her.

It was only when Mac tried to raise her head off the pillow and found it didn’t come easy did it occur to her that this time she never actually headed back to her own room. She was still sharing space with Dick, and the reason she was having trouble moving was because he had his uninjured arm flung across her body. Being sound asleep, Mac had to assume Dick had no idea he was touching her at all. If he did, he might just be as mortified about it as she felt, on realising they had slept together. Sure, that was slept in the literal sense, but it was still pretty freaky for her.

Swallowing hard, Mac took a couple of deep breaths. Even now, after all these years, she was prone to the occasional moment of panic. Not a full attack exactly, but she could get in quite a state if she let herself when it came to guys and waking up where she didn’t expect to. It wasn’t as if this sort of thing happened much with Mac, but once or twice after a few drinks or just waking from a bad dream, she had found herself lying in the arms of a man that was momentarily unfamiliar to her and it hadn’t ended well.

This was different. This was just Dick and nothing had really happened. They fell asleep that was all, both fully clothed and everything, a perfectly innocent situation. The weird thing was that it felt the complete opposite of innocent somehow. Not that Mac was about to accuse Dick of taking advantage of her. For one thing, she doubted in his current state that he could. Besides, for all that he had been kind of a man-slut in high school, quick to work his way into the panties of any girl that would let him, Mac knew things were different now and had been for a long time. Sure, Dick had his fair share of women, and some other guys share to go along with if the rumours were to be believed, but he wasn’t a monster now, if he ever really was.

Lying next to him was oddly comfortable. Mac took the time to really look at the man who had been her bedfellow last night. There was no doubting that he was good-looking. She recalled him being adorably cute as a little boy in elementary, and then just down-right hot when they were in high school, at least Mac would have thought so if Dick wasn’t constantly living up to his name by then. The physical appeal of a person was easily dimished by ass-hat behaviour, that much Mac knew for sure, but these days Dick was better, not anything close to perfect, but better. Besides, she felt as if she were fast learning why he behaved the way he did before and even now. Certainly whilst he was sleeping soundly there was nothing to detract from his looks, and he was still gorgeous.

“Get it together, Mackenzie,” she told herself in a whisper, retracting the hand that had risen, apparently of its own accord, as if to push Dick’s hair from his eyes.

It was the second time already that she caught herself itching to mess with his hair. Mac wondered if that’s how it started, how perfectly sensible women just lost their bearings and fell headlong into completely unsuitable relationships. It was just too much temptation to touch the pretty, pretty hair!

Almost laughing at herself for being so dumb, Mac let her hand fall on Dick’s arm instead and gently began manoeuvring her way free from his grasp. She could’ve just said ‘to hell with it’ and woken him up, even yelled at him for ever holding onto her in the first place, but Mac couldn’t see the point. He was still injured, still needed rest, and besides, she had fallen asleep just as easily as he had. Just the same, they could have ended up lying there with her arm across his body, though the thought of it made her shiver in a way Mac refused to examine.

Finally raising Dick’s arm enough that she could slide out from under it, Mac misjudged how little bed there really was behind her. What should have been an elegant exit proved to be anything but as she actually rolled herself off the edge of the bed and landed in an ungraceful heap on the floor.

The crash of Mac’s landing woke Dick with a start. He sat up quickly, wrenching his injured arm from the sling without thinking and making his head swim wildly as well. He looked left and right, wincing with terrible pain, and then his wobbly gaze landed on Mac as she levered herself up from the rug.

“Dude, what the hell?”

“Dude, I could ask you the same thing!” she shot back.

Covering her embarrassment by turning this around on him seemed like a plan to Mac, however unfair it actually was. Apparently the guy wasn’t going down without a fight either.

“I repeat, what the hell?” he asked again. “You always wake up patients by crashing into their rooms?”

“You always grab the nearest woman in your sleep?” she shot back, hands on her hips and eyes flashing with fire.

The trouble was she was asking about something that Dick didn’t even know had happened. It was written all over his face that he had no clue he was ever holding her, that she had even slept here at all. He glanced away, frowning from more than just the headache now, looking to the place on the edge of the bed where Mac had been. There was a second dent in the pillows next to where he had been laying, and one of Mac’s shoes was caught in the comforter near his own feet.

“Huh,” he said eventually. “Well, that’s... Y’know, you’re probably the first chick I ever slept with that I didn’t actually, y’know, sleep with?”

“I’ll mark that down as a win,” said Mac, hurriedly straightening the clothes she had spent all night in and making a hasty exit. “I’ll fix breakfast, figure out what pills you need...”

Her voice disappeared down the stairs along with the rest of her, and Dick lay back down, trying not to wince at the pain still shooting through his arm and thumping in his head. It was so weird. He and Mac had spent the night together, fully clothed and with no funny business. She had just been there, and honestly, it was the best night’s sleep he’d had in years.

“What does that mean?” Dick asked the ceiling too seriously.

Oddly enough, it didn’t answer, and Dick sure as hell didn’t have an explanation of his own, so it would have to remain a mystery for now.

* * *

“Hey, you.” Veronica smiled into the computer webcam and tried to make it convincing. “How are things out there in the big blue yonder?”

“They’re okay,” replied Logan with a brave grin of his own. “Nothing much that I can talk about, you know that. Besides, you’re the one with the exciting life.”

Veronica almost laughed at the joke, but didn’t quite manage it. These Skype calls were supposed to make it easier, she was supposed to miss Logan less because she would at least see him this way, talk to him a little. The reverse was true. It didn’t make it easier, only harder. Having him here but not broke a little piece off her heart every single time, but pain was an old buddy to Veronica Mars and she embraced it, she had learnt it was the only way.

“Yeah, me and my exciting life,” she said with a sigh. “This morning alone I’ve found a lost dog and busted a cheating husband at the Camelot.”

“Some things never change,” said Logan knowingly. “How’s Dick?”

Veronica knew he was going to ask that before long. It was killing Logan to be away from her, but also from his best bud when he knew the guy was in need. Dick may be an ass much of the time, but the beating he took was uncalled for, Veronica was almost certain on that. She expected Logan to want answers and justice for his BFF, she was just having trouble with both of those things right now.

“Dick is... He’s okay. Mac’s doing the nurse thing still, and they haven’t killed each other yet so that’s a plus.”

Logan smiled.

“That’s good. Y’know, it’s weird. I always thought that if they were ever forced to actually send quality time together, something good might come out of it.”

“Really?” checked Veronica with a raised eyebrow that went so high even Logan could see it through the grainy webcam and jumpy internet connection. “’Cause I never had Mac and Dick down as an obvious pairing.”

“Think about it,” said Logan thoughtfully. “They both had pretty screwed up beginnings, they both have that slightly off-kilter sense of humour, both computer game nerds, and... and, well, you know they both had a connection with... him.”

He faltered for Veronica’s sake more than his own, though she knew very well how Cassidy Casablancas death had haunted Logan for a long time too. They were both there when he jumped, both knowing all that he had done and yet unable to bear watching any person, no matter how awful, leap to their death by design. Veronica looked away a second and cleared her throat.

“I guess,” she said eventually. “Um, in other news, I get to go out to dinner tonight.”

“Some other guy I should know about?” asked Logan, only half joking.

“Actually, yes” Veronica told him smartly. “There will be a guy there, and that guy’s wife, and their daughter. I’ve been invited over to Chez Navarro.”

“Tell Weev I said a cheery ‘hi’,” Logan told her too sincerely.

It was tough for Veronica to keep a straight face and quite honestly, she didn’t try all that hard.

“I’m sure he’ll be thrilled to know you’re thinking of him.”

“Well, I have to have something to get me through the long lonely nights, and recalling some of mine and Eli’s good times helps. Man, I punched him in the face a lot.”

“My man has grown so much,” said Veronica, rolling her eyes. “Seriously though, keep on being careful out there, okay, Navy man?”

“So long as you do the same, Detective woman,” he countered, leaning in closer to the camera. “I love you, Veronica.”

“I love you too, Logan,” she promised, blowing him a kiss.

It really was so much harder seeing him like this, and yet Veronica could never give up their long distance talks. Without them, she didn’t know how she would keep on going.

* * *

Mac was avoiding him. Dick knew it was true, after all, it didn’t take a genius to figure it out. She had brought him breakfast and his pills first thing and then declared she had a lot to do and disappeared from his sight in a second. She said to call her cell if he needed her, since she was going to be downstairs and wouldn’t necessarily here a yell. Dick hadn’t had to do that yet. By the time he decided he really had to go to the bathroom, Mac came up with lunch and more drugs for him to take. After that she was gone again and Dick had spent too many lonely hours playing GTA solo and channel hopping until he wanted to scream with frustration at shopping channels and soap stars he didn’t care about.

Having Mac here had seemed a little weird at first, especially that first night when she brought him out of an embarrassingly bad nightmare, but since then Dick found they got along. They played computer games and talked about stuff that didn’t matter, it was just comfortable. Mac could eat junk food like no other woman he ever met, apparently not caring about counting carbs or whatever, and yet still looking pretty smoking hot as far as he could tell. They were some strange kind of friends these last couple of days and Dick actually forgot he was recovering from injuries with an assistant type here to watch out for him. They were just buddies hanging out and it was cool.

Suddenly it had all changed. Mac was pissed at him and as far as Dick could tell it was for something that shouldn’t even matter. So they fell asleep together, so what? Sure, he never did that with a chick before when there hadn’t been some serious activities of the horizontal rhumba kind beforehand, but it wasn’t as if he did anything wrong. The only reason Mac could possibly have for being so mad at him, as far as Dick could tell, was that maybe she wanted him to make a move and he hadn’t. That didn’t seem right either, for as big as Dick’s ego was, he was pretty damn sure Mac hated him up until a week ago, and even now she was just being nice to him because of the attack and all. She felt sorry for him, she didn’t like him. She knew him too well, that was the problem.

Dick turned off the TV and slammed his hand into the mattress with a thud. He hated this. He hated when something was going on and he couldn’t figure it out by himself, especially these days because most of the time he couldn’t even ask Logan for advice. There was nobody who cared about Dick anymore, at least nobody inside of the continental United States right now, except maybe for Mac and she was the whole damn problem.

Grabbing his phone from the nightstand, Dick punched in Mac’s number. She had to be downstairs still, though he hadn’t heard her moving around in a while. He really needed to talk to her and getting to the lower level of the house in his current state would not come easy, especially now when the pain was increasing, proving he was probably due another couple of pills. He knew at least that he had an excuse in that for calling Mac. He waited three rings and was about ready to give up and just yell for her when the bedroom door opened.

“I was already on my way up,” she told him, manoeuvring through the door with a tray in her hands.

There was a snack and a drink all laid out, alongside two pill bottles and a magazine. Mac deposited all onto the bed beside Dick and then counted out the right number of drugs for him to take. All this without a word as Dick abandoned the phone and just watched her a moment. The second she headed for the door again, he called her name and stopped her in her tracks.

“What is up with you today?” he asked plainly, the same way Dick asked most things that he wanted to know.

Mac let out a long sigh, the hand not on the door knob coming up to rub her forehead.

“Nothing,” she told him. “I’m just busy.”

She tried to leave again, but again he stopped her with his words.

“Bull. You had plenty of time for me until this morning. What’s your problem, Mackenzie? Got your panties in a bunch because they were still on when you woke up?”

She turned around, face like thunder, both hands balled into fists now. It was the most disgusting and inappropriate thing he could have said and they both knew it. Dick looked as if he might be regretting it already, but Mac was too mad to care.

“If you didn’t have enough bruises and breaks already, I would smack you in the face for that,” she told him sharply. “You’re out of line, Casablancas!”

“Well, something has you all pissed at me, and at least now you look like you might tell me what the hell it is,” he countered.

Mac opened her mouth to speak and closed it again fast. She wasn’t exactly thrilled to realise she had pretty much just been out-manoeuvred by Dick Casablancas. He made her mad on purpose, knowing she would yell at him, knowing she would tell him what he wanted to know. Of course, it would be a little easier on Mac if she knew herself what her problem really was.

“I didn’t come here to sleep with you, Dick,” she told him at last, eyes closed for as long as she was ranting because it had to be easier not to look at him right now. “My plan is not to seduce you for your body or your money or whatever else you have. I’m here to help you, not to be your best buddy and not for any other reason. You need help and I’m helping, that’s all.”

When Mac eventually opened her eyes and looked at him, she was surprised to see Dick staring at her in stunned silence. She wasn’t sure what she really expected to him to think or say. She was just trying to make clear that what happened last night was an accident, a freakishly weird happening that meant nothing at all. Mac wasn’t sure what he thought about the way they woke this morning, but she was leaving him in no doubt about her thoughts now. It seemed safer that way.

“Okay,” he said after a long moment of silence. “I get it, I’m not your type and you’re not mine. What’s the big deal?”

Mac hadn’t expected quite such a sensible response from Dick, but then he just seemed to be full of surprises lately. Now he had her wondering what her problem really had been. Neither of them did anything wrong and neither wanted more out of their arrangement than what they already had. Things were cool, no harm, no foul.

“I guess, nothing,” she said at last. “No big deal,” she added, shrugging her shoulders.

“Cool,” replied Dick, nodding once. “So, I’m pretty sure Logan left Mario Kart last time he was here. You in?”

Mac smiled in spite of herself, pushing her short hair back with one hand as she sighed.

“Yeah, I’m in.”


	9. Chapter 9

“Hey, V,” said Weevil with a grin, as he opened the front door and found her there. “Always good to see ya,” he added, pulling her into a hug.

Veronica never hesitated in hugging him back, even though his wife and daughter were watching. She and Eli had been buddies for so long, always having each other’s back. Though they flirted some times, there was never anything like that between them, and there never would be. They were just the kind of friends that were the hugging kind of close. Veronica didn’t have many friends like that, so she made the most of them.

“Always good to be invited to a place where the meal is home-cooked and the company isn’t my own,” she told Weevil as he encouraged her into the house. “Hey, Val. Hi, Jade. Thanks again for inviting me over,” she told Weevil’s wife, handing over a bottle of wine.

“You are more than welcome, Veronica,” Jade assured her, leading her through the house. “Dinner will be just a few minutes, but I know Valentina has been just dying to show you a certain dolls house.”

The little girl was bouncing in place with the anticipation of showing off her newest and most wonderful toy. Veronica smiled at the enthusiasm, she couldn’t help it.

“A doll’s house?” she checked, eyes deliberately wide.

“It ain’t no pony, but it oughta be impressive enough,” said Weevil with a wink.

Veronica was still smiling as she was practically dragged from the room by Valentina to go see the dolls house. She didn’t notice that anything had fallen out of her bag on the way, but Jade did.

Jade stooped to pick up the item from the carpet and placed it on the corner of the coffee table.

“Can’t have a woman losing her best lipstick,” she said, before walking through to the kitchen to check on dinner.

Weevil followed her, hands stuffed in his pockets. He leaned on the door jamb and watched her working. Sometimes he couldn’t quite believe this was his life. From more than humble beginnings, he had got to this, not the biggest, fanciest house in the ‘hood, but decent enough. He had a loving wife, a gorgeous and talented daughter. Sure, he was spending some time with a crowd Jade didn’t approve of, but as he told her several times, he was being safe. Besides, she knew what he was when she married him, he never hid his past or his less-than-straight-laced friends at all.

Having Veronica around again tended to make Weevil nostalgic. What he sometimes thought of as the good old days in high school soon brought him back to thinking of the less-than-great times. Losing Felix, going to jail, blowing out his knee, working like a dog. The last one was still true, but at least he was doing it for more than just scraps now.

“You’re doing it again,” said Jade, turning to face him. “Your head isn’t here anymore.”

“It’s plenty here,” he promised, taking his hands from his pockets to wrap his arms around her waist and pull her close. “Believe me, if you ain’t heard it enough before, I’ll say it again. Here is the only place I want to be. The past... I had my high points, but my present and my future, everything I have with you and Valentina? It’s everything I want, always.”

“It better be,” she said with a smile, because she didn’t really disbelieve it.

They were kissing like teens in love when Veronica and Valentina came bursting through the door. V covered the child’s eyes with one hand and her own with the other.

“Please, we’re both too young to see that kind of thing!”

Valentina giggled.

Weevil just rolled his eyes as he parted from his wife and dinner was duly served.

They talked about anything and eveything whilst they ate, though with little ears present, they were all mindful of staying on kid friendly topics. Veronica did enjoy having a real conversation with people of her own age that didn’t revolve around cases and all. Still, talk of her work was bound to come up when Weevil mentioned that he ran into Mac the other day.

“She said Casablancas took a real pounding,” he mentioned to Veronica. “As much as it’d be easy for me to say a guy like that had it comin’, she seemed pretty sure he didn’t. I didn’t know they were buddies these days.”

“Yeah, buddies might be stretching it,” said Veronica. “But somebody sure meant business. I highly doubt even Dick deserved what he got that night. Mac is just being helpful, it’s kind of what she does. There really isn’t anybody else with Dick’s family gone and Logan away still.”

Her eyes betrayed her then, and she knew it. Weevil knew it too, because suddenly Veronica was very interested in her empty plate and the table. Logan being gone was hard on Dick, but it was a million times harder on V. He reached out a hand to cover hers a second or two.

“He’ll be back, V,” he told her definitely. “Guys like that, they always come back, whether you want ‘em to or not,” he said with a smirk.

Veronica couldn’t help but smile too.

“I know,” she agreed, nodding her head. “He’s worried about Dick too, though the doctors seem pretty sure he’ll be fine, he just needs time to heal. As for what exacly happened, that one is quite the mystery.”

Valentina asked to be excused from the table now the meal was over and was allowed to go. She hopped down from her seat and asked Veronica if she wanted to come play. She looked torn between being dragged away by the adorable child and staying longer to talk with her friend and his wife.

“Baby, Veronica came here to see your daddy and me as well as you,” said Jade. “How about you run along and play a while and then Veronica will come see you soon, okay?”

“Okay,” said Valentina with a nod of her head, and then she was gone in a flurry of hair ribbons and laughter.

“She’s just perfect,” said Veronica, watching her go. “How is she so perfect?”

“She’s my kid,” said Weevil modestly.

“Exactly, it’s so unlikely,” she teased him as mercilessly as she ever had.

Jade only laughed and began clearing the table. Both Veronica and Weevil moved to assist but she shook her head.

“No, now come on. You two always have lots to talk about, old school days and everything. I can handle a few dishes, now go relax.”

Weevil and Veronica dared not do anything but what they were told and moved through to the living room, taking a seat at either end of the couch. It was then Veronica spotted her lipstick on the table.

“Yeah, Jade noticed you dropped that,” Weevil told her. “What? It has special sentimental value?” he asked then, wondering why Veronica was making such a big deal of looking the small cylinder over before putting it back into her purse.

“No, obviously not,” she confirmed. “I was just thinking. I found a lipstick at a crime scene. It might just be a coincidence but I never heard of it and when I Googled the brand, nothing came up.”

“Hey, babe?” Weevil called to Jade who came through to see what was up, a plate in one hand and the dishtowel in the other. “I ain’t no expert in make up, V,” he told her. “But Jade here, she knows her stuff. Trained beautician and all.”

“Oh, yeah,” said Veronica, turning her attention to Jade. “You ever hear of a lipstick brand named ‘Estella DiSanto’?”

“Man, that takes me back,” said Jade, sitting down heavily into the armchair. “Well, that is nothin’ I heard of when I was working. We’re going right on back to my high school days. Estella was a rip-off brand, all the colours and style of Estee Lauder, Dior, YSL, but for nickels and dimes compared to the price of the big brands,” she explained. “Far as I know, they were around for a year or so, and then the makers got busted in a warehouse the next county over.”

Veronica frowned at the explanation she received. A lipstick tube from an off-brand made at least ten years ago, that seemed highly suspicious. Even the most thrifty woman would have used up her tube or just thrown it away by now. Even the least organised woman in the world would have sorted through the contents her purse in all that amount of time, surely.

“V?” Weevil prompted when she continued to stare unseeing at the opposite wall for too long. “Hey, Earth to Mars!”

“Yeah, that one never gets old,” she said, meeting his eyes then. “I’m fine, and thank you, Jade,” she added turning to her. “You might just have helped me out a lot with a case I’m working on.”

“Any time,” said Jade, shrugging her shoulders, since she really didn’t know what it was she had done, and knew Veronica could give her no details.

As much as Veronica was enjoying tonight, the food and the company, she had to also be grateful for the lead in her case. Maybe it was nothing, but when she got out of the Navarros house tonight, she was going to have to go straight to the office and make a closer inspection of a very strange lipstick.

* * *

Mac stepped out from under the shower and wrapped herself in a thick, warm towel. There were definite perks to living with Dick Casablancas, one of which was the stunning amenities his home was filled with. The power shower with at least six settings was a wonderful thing, never running suddenly cold when a neighbour flushed the toilet or turned on a tap, and having the ability to make a person feel brand new just from standing under it. Though she had come here equipped with her own linens and towels, Mac also loved the thick Egyptian cotton bath sheets she had found in the closet and was entirely eager to make use of them when Dick said she could.

“This is the life,” she said to herself as she towel dried her hair in front of the mirror.

It wasn’t going to last forever, of course, and Mac intended to make the most of her situation for as long as she was in it. First and foremost she was here to take care of Dick, but he really wasn’t so needy. She had to bring him food and drinks, make sure he took his tablets, and get him back and forth to the bathroom when needed. Other than that, her time in the house was spent working as she usually would, or actually having fun with Dick.

Mac laughed when she realised how she had phrased that in her head. Still, it was true enough. Lying around playing computer games with Dick was actually fun. They had no really deep conversations, just split a pizza and kicked each others butts in everything from Halo to Mario Party, but fun was genuinely had. Mac found a smile came to her lips just thinking about it. Of all the people in the world she could imagine becoming friends with, Dick Casablancas sure wasn’t one of them, and yet.

Padding through from the bathroom to her bedroom, Mac was just about to slip out of her towel and into her nightwear when she heard yelling.

“Mac!” Dick called loudly. “Hey, Mac!”

In a sudden panic that something terrible had happpened, Mac refastened her towel and bolted out the door. Down the hall way to the next room, Mac came bursting into Dick’s room, worrying all the more when she realised he was not in the bed where she expected to find him. Instead he was sat in a chair by the doors that led out onto the balcony.

“Mac Attack!” Dick greeted her with a grin.

He had taken to calling her that when she showed her mettle in Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and the like. Mac almost thought it was cute at the time, but right now she was in too much of a state to realise he had even used his newfound nickname for her.

“Dick, what he hell?!” she asked him, pushing her damp hair back off her forehead.

“Dude! You were in the shower?” he checked. “You totally should have put on some clothes... Which I can’t believe I just said to a woman. Those drugs they gave me at the hospital are seriously screwing me up,” he continued to mutter even as his eyes returned to the view. “Mac, seriously, you gotta see this!” he pointed into the distance.

Holding her towel as tightly as she could, Mac picked her way across the room, and came to stand by Dick’s chair. Following his finger out into the horizon, she realised what all the fuss was about. The sun was setting on the water, every colour of the rainbow showing itself in both the sky above and the ocean below. It was stunning, beyond stunning, it was genuinely breath-taking.

“Wow,” she said without even realising she had spoken.

“Exactly,” said Dick definitely. “I mostly got this place for the view, and the closeness to the surf, but man, this is just the best part ever.”

Mac was amazed. The sunset was impressive enough, and despite how Dick had put her into a panic with his yelling before, she couldn’t really be mad at him for bringing her here to see such a beautiful scene. What perhaps astounded her even more than the view, was Dick himself. He was so shallow most of the time, so crass and ridiculous, and yet here he was waxing lyrical on the beauty of a sunset, on the natural beauty of the world.

“What?” he asked when he realised Mac was now staring more at him than at the view.

“You have layers,” she said, more to herself than to him, before shaking her head and continuing more definitely. “Who are you and what did you do with Dick Casablancas?” she asked with a smirk she couldn’t help.

“Babe, you want Dick all you gotta do is ask,” he leered at her, suddenly apparently very interested in what she was hiding under the towel.

Mac laughed because she couldn’t do anything else and moved swiftly away from the chair he was sitting in.

“There he is,” she said, still smiling uncontrollably as she made her way back across the room. “I’m going to get dressed. If you’re so smart, get yourself back to the bed in the next five minutes and prepare to have your ass kicked at Mario Kart one more time!”

Dick was grinning as she left his room in a hurry, flashing bare skin as she went and probably not even realising. The sunset was beautiful, that was true, but Cindy Mackenzie was no less amazing in her own very special way.


	10. Chapter 10

“Yahtzee!” declared Veronica as she pulled apart the lipstick cylinder and found no makeup inside.

It seemed very strange that anyone should have a ten year old off-brand rolling around in their purse, and it was doubly suspicious to find it at a crime scene. Veronica was almost certain when she opened it up she was going to find a surprise, and so she did. Her latex-covered fingers moved over a tiny button that looked as if it might trigger a spray of some kind. Aiming it into the plastic baggy on the table, Veronica pushed down but there was barely a ‘fzzt’ of a sound and the tiniest splash of liquid dripped out. Whatever had been in this container was all used up and somehow Veronica doubted it was Chanel No 5.

“Honey?” called a voice from the entranceway.

“Come in, Dad!” she replied, dropping the not-lipstick into the bag and pulling off her latex gloves inside out.

By the time Keith made it to the door, limping all the way, Veronica was in deep internet search mode. She needed to figure out what this stuff was and where it came from. First stop was emailing a buddy of hers who she hoped still worked in a lab and remembered that he owed her a favour.

“I know that look,” said Keith, taking a seat across from his daughter. “You got a breakthrough on one of your cases?”

“Maybe.” Veronica nodded as she finished off her email and hit send. Her attention went to her father then, a grin on her face as she carefully picked up the evidence baggy and showed it to Keith. “That look like a lipstick to you?”

“Absolutely not,” he agreed, casting his eye over the mysterious tiny spray bottle. “Certainly doesn’t look like perfume or smell like breath freshener either,” he winced after just a cursory sniff of the bag.

“My guess would be some kind of knock out juice. I’m calling in a favour at the lab, should be able to identify the compound. Of course, finding out who put it in the cylinder and why is a whole other battle. I really wish Dick could actually remember something about the attack.”

“He might yet,” Keith considered. “The memory is a funny thing.”

“Dick’s brain is a funny thing, and that’s putting it delicately.” Veronica rolled her eyes. “Speaking of, I should really check in with Mac at some point. It’s been a couple of days.”

“That girl is a marvel. I know Dick isn’t all bad, but he isn’t exactly all good either.”

“Ain’t that the truth!” Veronica declared loudly. “Still, he is Logan’s friend and he’s been through a lot. The fact that Mac hasn’t walked out on him or caused him further injury is either a testament to her patience or he is actually, dare I say it, growing up a little?”

“You all do eventually, it seems,” said Keith, smiling fondly at his daughter. “Although quite honestly, I think you were an adult from around age ten.”

The phone ringing interrupted any further conversation. Veronica looked apologetic as she picked up and found it was Mac on the other end of the line. Weird coincidence duly noted, they talked briefly over a few messages that Mac had taken and some progress she had made with research into other cases.

“How’s the patient?” asked Veronica when she got the chance.

“Dick’s fine” replied Mac. “We’re getting along.”

It was a fairly short and vague answer, and somehow Veronica could hear a smile in the words that Mac spoke. It wasn’t a bad thing that there was no drama happening at Chez Casablancas, but Veronica was almost more unnerved by that than she was comforted. Mac and Dick becoming any kind of friends freaked her out just a little bit, though quite honestly, Veronica couldn’t have explained why even if she had been asked.

“Well, don’t tell Dick yet,” she said eventually, “but I may have had a breakthrough on his case. It’s not definite but we might at least have identified one part of the attacker’s weaponry.”

“All clues are good clues, right?” said Mac hopefully.

“I always think so,” her friend agreed. She may have said more if given the chance, but a rather loud thump caught her attention and caused some alarm.

Mac was clearly worried too as she yelled Dick’s name and asked if he was okay. When no answer came, she told Veronica she would call her back later and hung up fast. Mac was yelling to Dick repeatedly as she ran from her room to his own. She felt sick when she saw him lying face down on the carpet, trying his damndest to get up again and failing miserably.

“What were you trying to do?” she asked frantically as she hurried to assist him.

“I thought I could get to the damn bathroom by myself!” Dick yelled, clearly frustrated with himself for not managing what seemed to be such a basic task. Of course any such movement was hampered by his injuries. He had got from the bed to the chair and back a few times, but clearly today things were proving more tricky as he really hadn’t got far from the bed before falling. With Mac’s support, he managed to lever himself up on his good arm and uninjured leg. She had him sitting down on the edge of the bed, but dare not move too far from him until he looked less pale.

“You okay now?” she asked him.

“Yeah, I guess so,” said Dick, pushing his hair back off his forehead. “I don’t even know how that happened. I just got up, my ribs kinda hurt, and then bam! Did I black out?” he asked, as if Mac was supposed to know.

It was unlikely she would have been able to tell even if she was in the room, and more than a little worrying that Dick didn’t know himself.

“Maybe I should call the doctor,” she considered, biting her lip.

“Nah, it’s cool,” he assured her, waving away her concern as he tried to get his legs back up onto the bed with varied levels of success until Mac assisted. “I probably just got up too fast.”

“That might be it,” Mac agreed.

After all, Dick hadn’t had any fainting spells since she had been taking care of him, no dizziness since the first day which was nearly two weeks ago now. They were due to head back to the hospital tomorrow for a check-up. Dick’s ankle had been classified as a Grade 2 sprain so it was likely to be anything up to a month yet before it was fully healed, but it was getting a little easier already. His ribs were clearly still giving him trouble, but Mac soon realised he was due more pain relief.

“You’re looking at me weird,” said Dick, returning the look, Mac noted.

“You are weird,” she told him with a smirk she couldn’t help. “And hey, I’m the one who volunteered to babysit you, so doesn’t that just make me more than a little off-balance? Sorry, that wasn’t supposed to be a joke...” she apologised immediately gesturing the patch of carpet where Dick had landed face down just minutes before.

“It’s cool,” he told her, with a lop-sided shrug. “You’re cool for being here. I’ve told you that right?”

“A couple of times.” Mac nodded, feeling awkward still when he paid her any kind of compliment. “Um, I’ll go get you some water so you can take your meds. That should ease the pain some, and then I can help you with the whole getting to the bathroom thing.”

She was out of the room pretty fast and Mac was glad to be able to breathe more freely. It was the craziest thing, because she could handle being around Dick, playing video games, hanging out, even having him lean on her when he needed to. The part that made her most uncomfortable was when he looked at her this certain way, like she was just the best thing in his life. That was a ridiculous way of putting it, but Mac couldn’t find other words in her head. Nobody ever looked at her like that before, but she had seen a similar expression on Logan’s face when he gazed at Veronica. It was unnerving to have such a look aimed at her, especially when the person looking was Dick.

They were friends, of a kind, but that was all, and prior to the attack they hadn’t even been that. In high school, they barely spoke until Mac dated Cassidy, then every time Dick saw them he poked fun at their relationship. He said some truly horrible things back then, but in college he seemed to repent. Mac knew from what Veronica had told her that Dick really suffered after his little brother committed suicide. The drinking got worse and he went through a serious depressive state. Logan had been a rock for him, whilst Veronica and Wallace supported Mac when she struggled in the aftermath of Beaver’s demise. It was strange to think that the best people to get each other through all that might have been each other.

In spite of the dark subject matter on her mind, Mac smiled as she got water from the fridge for Dick and another bottle for herself. The idea of the two of them being buds in college was so out there. When he decided one day on the beach to apologise for his past sins, Mac had forgiven Dick, but then he tried to kiss her and she pushed him aside. Even so, she had to admit she had thought about it more than once afterwards, about the possibility of what could have been.

“Not helpful,” she muttered to herself, heading back upstairs.

She barely looked at Dick as she got him the correct pills and handed them over, along with a bottle of water. Mac heard him say ‘thanks’ and then turned away, taking a drink from her own water bottle. Her eyes were fixed on the view beyond the window, the waves lapping on the beach below. For an indoors type of woman, she would love to be out there in this moment. This room was lacking fresh air, or any air at all just now.

“Mac?” said Dick, getting her attention so suddenly she spilled a trickle of water right down her shirt. “Sorry.”

“No big deal,” she told him, brushing the dampness off her t-shirt. “Er, you need to go to the bathroom, right?”

Dick only nodded in reply, looking oddly nervous. Mac had to think he was remembering a few minutes ago and worrying he was going to land in a heap on the floor again. He was stupidly helpless lately and that had to suck. Sure, Dick was the type to have been waited on hand and foot for much of his life, but there was a difference between wanting to do nothing for yourself and being unable to, Mac supposed.

“Y’know, my mom went through this dizzy spells thing for a while,” she said eventually. “The doctor told her that when she got up out of bed she should sit on the edge for a while, take a few deep breaths and then stand,” she explained. “Maybe you wanna try that?”

Dick did as he was told, swinging his legs down to sit on the edge of the bed for a minute. Mac moved in close just in case, keeping her eyes away from his face. Nothing had happened here, and nothing was going to, she was sure on that, but just the very thought of the past, or even past musings on what could have happened, it had put her on pins and needles with him.

When he was ready, Dick moved to get up and Mac reacted instantly, being there for him to lean on as he hopped and hobbled to the bathroom door.

“You okay?” she checked, before letting him go it alone.

“Yeah, thanks,” he told her, going into the en suite.

Mac moved away, retrieved her water bottle and took another drink. She moved to sit down on the foot of the bed and waited until Dick needed her help getting back across the room.

Tomorrow was going to be an adventure, taking the guy to the hospital. They had already booked a cab and Veronica knew when Mac would and would not be available for work and such. The only issue, which Mac had yet to broach with Dick, was the fact the people at the hospital believed they were engaged. That particular piece of information had not been mentioned at all since her first telling him about it way back in the beginning of their arrangement. Of course, way back was barely two weeks ago, but sometimes, Mac just felt like she had been here forever.

The toilet flushed, water ran from the faucet at the sink, and Mac moved back over to the door in time for Dick to emerge, looking pale. She didn’t even ask if he was okay, just offered her support again and got him back to the bed as quickly and carefully as she could.

“Probably should’ve waited ‘til those pain pills kicked in,” said Dick, holding his ribs with his good arm. “Damn, I actually think this is getting worse.”

“Well, we can talk to the doctor about it tomorrow,” said Mac, trying not to sound as worried as she felt.

He didn’t look well. Dick may have been an ass hat for a lot of years that she knew him, but Mac wasn’t so stupid that she didn’t know he was a good looking guy. Always tanned and always smiling, that was Dick Casablancas, but today a lot of people who had known him before might not even recognise the guy. It was uncomfortable for Mac to see. She only wished she could be of more help.

“Dick...” she began, not really sure what the rest of the sentence was when he met her eyes. “Um, are you okay for a while if I go to my room? I have to call Veronica back. Work stuff,” she explained awkwardly.

“I’m cool,” he said sleepily, eyes closing as if beyond his control. “I might just nap a little.”

Mac smiled as she watched him drifting off. Sleep would probably help, but she knew she would be back every five minutes to check he was still okay. It would be easier to just come sit in here with her laptop as soon as she could, but her call to Veronica was probably best conducted out of the way. She headed back to her room, pushed the door almost closed and grabbed her cell to call her friend again.

“Mac, everything okay?” asked Veronica immediately.

“Pretty much, yeah,” she confirmed. “Dick fell out of bed, but he’s okay now. His ribs are hurting a lot. I guess that’s normal,” she said, Googling it even as she said the words. “He should probably be moving more for the sake of his chest, but with his ankle... Nursing is not easy,” she declared everntually.

“Really? I thought you just threw on the uniform and automatically knew it all,” said Veronica, dead-pan as ever.

“If I put on the traditional uniform I think Dick would fall down several more times, from the shock.” Mac smiled, unable to help it. “I think he’ll be okay.”

“I’m sure he will,” her friend assured her. “Maybe this is the worst time, but if I sent you a couple of pictures, could you maybe ask Dick if he recognises the women? It didn’t seem so important before but in the light of new evidence, it might just be.”

“Sure, I can ask, when he wakes up,” Mac agreed. “Who are the women?”

“Missy and Stephanie, the bartenders from the club that I told you about before. Dick doesn’t remember much from the night of the attack, but he might know more about these ladies than we can dig out of the old 1s and 0s.”

“Okay,” said Mac. “Send them over and when he wakes up, I’ll ask.”

There was a pause before Veronica spoke again.

“Mac, you’re okay, right?” she checked. “I mean, all this is pressure on you...”

“I’m fine,” her friend told her quickly. “Honestly, Veronica, I’m fine.”

“Okay,” replied Veronica, soon ending the call, though they both knew that neither of them were really buying that Mac was altogether fine, not for a second.


	11. Chapter 11

“You okay?” asked Dick as he and Mac rode in the cab together to the hospital.

Getting him back down the stairs and into the car had been kind of an adventure but they managed in the end and now it was a quiet fifteen minute trip to Neptune Memorial. At least, Mac had hoped on it being quiet. Since yesterday it had been on her mind that she needed to talk to Dick about their ‘engagement’ before they got to the hospital. Time was ticking away and still she hadn’t brought it up. It was becoming now or never, and apparently she was sufficiently nervous that even the non-observant Dick had noticed she was acting weird.

“You remember how me and Veronica got told all about your injuries the night you were attacked, right?” she said in a low voice, mindful of the cab driver overhearing secrets. “What we told the doctors?”

“That Ronnie was my sister and you and me were, like, together or something, right?” he said, frowning some.

Mac honestly wasn’t sure if he was being as dumb as he usually seemed or putting it on because he was as embarrassed by this situation as she was. High school Dick would have jumped at the chance to even play pretend at dating a girl he hadn’t managed to score yet. Even college Dick or reunion Dick might have been that way. Post-attack Dick was different, at least he seemed that way to Mac. Maybe this was just the real person who she had never been permitted to see until now. She couldn’t say for sure, and now didn’t seem like the right time to debate it.

“Yeah,” she said, shaking her head clear of too many thoughts. “Um, I’m your fiancee, okay? Just, you have to remember that at the hospital, or me and Veronica could be in some trouble.”

“Don’t sweat it, Macky Mac. I got this,” he promised with a wink, turning then to look out of the cab window.

Mac blinked and then turned the other way to watch the view of Neptune whipping by her window too. Five minutes and they would hit the hospital, she got the awkward conversation out of the way just in time, and yet now they’d had it, she wondered what she was ever worried about.

From there on, the morning ran smoothly. Mac and Dick arrived at the hospital with time to spare and hit the waiting area just as his doctor became available for the appointment. Mac was invited to be there in the room whilst Dick was checked over and found it difficult to refuse, especially when he actively asked her to go with. He couldn’t really be nervous about anything, she considered, or could he? Mac was fast learning that Dick was a person like everybody else, not the mindless idiot he had always seemed before. That was mostly a front, a painted face, a protective shell. The real Dick could be fun, sweet, sincere when he wanted to be, and also afraid of things.

The doctor assured them both that everything was looking okay. Dick’s ankle was healing as was expected but it would be another two to four weeks before it was fully recovered. In the meantime, it still required to be strapped, though not as firmly. Movement was encouraged, as much as his ankle would allow, in a bid to help his ribs to heal without his lungs suffering. The arm was going to take the longest time to heal, as such fractures always did, but there were no extra problems found. The doctor made his usual checks, ensuring Dick’s blood pressure was okay and that there were no latent effects to his head after the blows it suffered in the attack.

“Completely normal brain functions,” the doctor said with a smile.

“Now that is weird,” said Mac without thinking.

She felt herself blush when the doctor looked sharply at her, but Dick’s laughter broke through any possible tension in a second.

“That’s my girl, doc. Always got to point out that she’s the brains in the relationship,” he told the doctor with a grin. “She always forgets that makes me the beauty,” he said, winking at Mac.

“Well, like I always say, if you’re going to bag yourself a rich man to live off, he may as well be hot,” she said easily, smiling just as big.

The doctor said nothing, just gestured for the nurse to assist Dick into a wheelchair and then he could leave. The whole time he was being helped with moving, Dick was looking at Mac and as much as she meant to look away, she just couldn’t do it. They were maybe a little too good at the flirtatious banter thing, as well as pretending they were way more than pseudo-friends.

“Right this way, ma’am,” said the nurse as she wheeled Dick out through the doors.

Mac nodded and followed on behind, thanking the doctor as they left. She took over pushing the wheelchair before they hit the exit and was glad to see the cab waiting not too far out into the parking lot.

“Babe, we should totally be in movies,” said Dick when it was unlikely anyone who mattered would hear. “We’d be totally believable. Oh come on, we were so on!” he said, tipping his head back to look at Mac when she didn’t immediately respond.

“Should I turn around and wheel you back in there? To the psych ward maybe?” she asked with a grin she couldn’t help. “We barely got away with that.”

“Dude, we were so good!” he argued as they reached the doors and Mac put the chair in park.

Getting Dick up from the wheelchair and over to the cab meant having him lean all over her, something Mac had experienced a million times before. Of course, now he was talking about what a great (fake) couple they would make, and that suddenly made the closeness all the more strange for her. She forced her brain to focus on anything but a certain dream she had last night and wished she could forget. Of course, the moment you try not to think of something it becomes the one and only thing to fill your mind. Mac cleared her throat and re-focused her eyes on the cab a few feet away.

“So it’s good that your injuries are healing,” she said, deliberately changing the subject. “The doctor seemed happy with your progress.”

“Yeah, but I’m still as strapped up as I was when we got here, and for another month?” he complained, wincing some as he dropped down into the back seat of the car.

“It might not be that long,” Mac sympathised, closing the door and running around the other side of the car to slide in beside him. “And besides, everyday things will get a little easier. Be grateful that you are at least healing. Some people would kill to have four limbs that will eventually work again,” she reminded him of those less fortunate for the sake of perspective.

The cab driver asked if they were ready to go and the moment they were strapped in they set off for home. They were barely two minutes from the hospital when Dick’s stomach rumbled loudly.

“Hey, you want to hit the drive through on the way home? I’m starved!” he declared loudly.

“I don’t do drive through service,” the cab driver told him in no uncertain terms.

“Dude, how ‘bout for an extra fifty bucks and I buy you a burger?”

Mac’s eyes widened at the suggestion and a laugh escaped her lips when she realised the driver was practically performing a U-turn to get them to the nearest McDonalds as quickly as possible. She really should hate the fact Dick was controlling people with money in that disgusting way rich folks sometimes did, but honestly, she was kind of hungry and it was at least a little impressive. Maybe this once she would let it go.

* * *

“Wow. These are the kind of women they have working at the 09er? I almost wish I could get in there,” said Wallace, staring at the photographs from Veronica’s pile of evidence.

“They may not be all they seem” she reminded him, glancing over to where he sat at the kitchen counter. “There’s a good chance at least one of them ties back to the attack on Dick two weeks ago,” she explained, tossing a bottle from the fridge into her friends hands. “Dick recognises them both and confirmed he saw each of them working on that particular night, but that’s all he’s got so far, a big ol’ blank after that.”

Veronica came to sit on the next stool over from her buddy and sighed. Her hand went to her forehead and she looked pained. Wallace patted her elbow.

“You work too hard,” he reminded her, as if she didn’t know. “Taking on all these cases...”

“Somebody has to, for at least as long as it takes for my dad to recover,” she said in hushed tones, mindful that although Keith was in his own room with the TV on, he might hear something and not appreciate it. “Besides, I need to figure out this Dick case for Logan as much as anyone. He’s his best friend, Wallace. If anything happened to you... I couldn’t rest until the bad guys were busted.”

“I know it,” he told her with a smile. “But you cracking every case in town is no good if you’re the next one taking a trip to the hospital with exhaustion or whatever,” he reminded her sternly. “You got to take a break now and then, Mars. This half hour catch up with me? Doesn’t really count.”

“I know, I’m sorry,” she apologised, rubbing her aching forehead. “We will spend some real time together soon and talk properly. I've just got to get on top of the case load, and with Mac also busy baby-sitting Dick, it is not easy. I’m worried about her too,” she told Wallace, sipping her drink. “You think I’m doing too much, but she... she sounded weird on the phone yesterday. I asked if she was okay and she said she’s fine, but-”

“But you two can be a little too much alike sometimes with your Wonder Woman tendencies,” Wallace noted, daring to interrupt in a way most people wouldn’t with Veronica Mars. The best friend had special rights. “Hey, how about this? When I leave here, I’ll swing by Dick’s place on the way home and make sure Mac is still vertical and sane.”

“That’d be good.” Veronica nodded.

They both knew it wasn’t just the busy that was stopping V from going over to the house to check on Mac and Dick. Being around that guy was still tough for her sometimes, especially when she thought of his brother and all that had happened there.

“You’re a good guy, Fennel. The best,” she told Wallace, sincere as she ever was about anything.

“Yeah, well,” he squirmed at the genuine compliment. “Somebody got to keep you crazy women from running yourselves into the ground. That’s my job,” he confirmed, patting his own chest.

Veronica leaned in to hug him, glad to feel anyone’s arms around her right now, a support more than a comfort in troubling times. Nothing terribly tragic was going on in her life right now, but all the little things had a habit of ganging up on her and taking her by surprise. Keith’s continued pain from his injuries, Logan’s absence, Mac’s stress, and the case surrounding Dick played on her mind almost constantly. It was good for Veronica to know that Wallace was always here to let her know things were going to be okay. She would never be without her brother from another mother, not for a moment.

* * *

“You can’t wait until we get home?” asked Mac, watching Dick digging into their takeout food with gusto, almost the moment the car pulled out of the drive through.

“Everything’s better when it’s hot, babe,” he told her with a wink, stuffing the burger into his mouth.

Mac shook her head but smiled all the same. She smiled a lot around Dick. Mac had to wonder if that was because her brain cells were dying being this close to someone so dumb. The more charitable and realistic part of her knew that he was just a funny guy that she liked maybe a little too much.

The honking of car horns and the slowing down of the cab made Mac pay attention to her surroundings again. Clearly, there had been some kind of incident somewhere up ahead and traffic was now grid-locked in all directions.

“Looks like we’re going to be here a while,” the cab driver told them, hitting the steering wheel with both hands.

He looked over at the food on the passenger seat and Mac looked down at her own bag in her lap.

“Then I guess we may as well eat,” she sighed, opening up her food as the driver was doing the same.

“Hey, man? You want to ramp up the tunes already?” Dick urged the driver. “Let’s get the party started!” he declared as music filled the car.

Mac winced a little at the volume to begin with, but her ears soon adjusted and she realised it was a song she actually liked. They bopped and grooved as they ate in the traffic jam. It was a weird kind of a party, but Mac couldn’t say she wasn’t enjoying watching Dick rock out, even if he was spitting French fries all over the interior of the cab in the process. The funny out-weighed the gross, and quite honestly, it was nice to see him act like Dick again after yesterday.

As the widows began to steam from the hot food and all of them breathing too much, Mac rolled hers down some and encouraged Dick to take a minute to do the same. It was almost immediately that she realised what a mistake they had made. The next car over was shiny and black, the driver of it a genuine chauffeur rather than the common cab driver Mac and Dick were riding behind. In the back of the town car sat a woman Mac recognised all too well, and when Dick spotted her, things were only ever going to get worse.

“What’s up, Mac Attack?” he asked when he caught her staring, following her eye-line to the next car over in the jam. “Dude, that is totally my ex!” he declared. “Hey, Mad!” he yelled.

Madison could not help but notice. Even if she had wanted to pretend she didn’t know him, it would’ve proved impossible, since the guy beside her looked over immediately. He tapped Madison’s shoulder and gestured towards the cab. Mac cringed as she met the eyes of a woman that both she and Veronica had described as their nemesis at different times in their lives.

Madison smiled a slow evil kind of a smile and pushed the button for the electric window. It slid down, and with a grin like a crocodile planning how best to eat you, she greeted them.

“Dick and Cindy!” she said too cheerily. “Not a combination I would expect, but hey, I guess everybody has to go slumming sometimes.”

Mac bit her tongue until it almost bled, not daring to say anything for fear of what truths might escape her in a moment of madness. This was not the time and place, if such a thing even existed.

“Not cool, Mad,” Dick told her. “Y’know Mac is totally a life saver. You didn’t hear about the mugging outside the 09er?”

“The 09er?” echoed Madison with a haughty laugh. “Dick, I’ve moved beyond those kind of circles. Future senators wives have better things to do than party like it’s 2005,” she smiled too much, flashing the engagement ring on her finger before letting the window back up.

The traffic started moving in a moment, and Dick carried on eating like nothing ever happened. Mac couldn’t do it. She hated Madison, she really did. Not that what happened to the two of them when they were babies was her fault, but Mac had other reasons, none of which she was willing to talk about right now. She scrunched up the paper bag that still contained most of her lunch, making it into a tight ball in her lap.

“Mac?” said Dick, noticing her distant expression and the mess that used to be her food. “Hey, I know Madison is kind of a bitch, but-”

“I’m fine,” she snapped, turning her eyes to the view from the window.

They were home before long, and Mac hopped out of the car, paying the driver without delay. She moved to help Dick from the cab and into the house, still not saying a word. He didn’t either, since he really had no idea what had got Mac so mad. Sure, Madison made a comment, but that was just her way. Dick never expected someone like Mac to be affected by that crap, and he had told Madison it wasn't cool to talk that way.

“You need anything?” Mac asked when she finally had Dick back in his room and onto the bed where he spent most of his time lately.

“No. Do you?” he asked. “Seriously, Mac, what’s up?”

“I told you, I’m fine!” she yelled then, tears welling in her eyes that she couldn’t help.

It was mostly frustration that Madison Sinclair could still get to her after all these years. The whole stupid mess of their birth, their lives, all that the Sinclairs had showered on their ungrateful non-daughter whilst Mac got the short end for most of her life. She shouldn’t be bitter, and most of the time she barely thought about it. Seeing Madison again, having her make a remark like that, especially in front of Dick, it just got to her. Mac’s annoyance at herself for being affected was what frustrated her to the point of tears, but Dick would never understand that.

Storming out the door before he could question her further, Mac slammed into her room and gave in to the tears. Better to let it all out now and have done with it, she supposed. There was no way she was going to cry on Dick’s shoulder or tell him the truth about her and Madison. She swore to herself she would never reveal that secret and she meant to keep that promise, whether it mattered to the rest of the world or not.

“Mac?”

Dick was calling for her, and not from his room given how loud he sounded. The knocking on her door proved he was right outside. Mac wiped her sleeve across her face and sniffed hard before going over to open the door. She found Dick precariously balanced on one leg with his good arm braced against the wall. How he had knocked without falling down she had no idea.

“What are you doing?” she asked frustratedly, voice coming out thick with emotion, though she tried not to let it.

“This is not cool,” said Dick definitely, frowning at the sight of her tear-stained face. “Talk to me, Macky, please?”

She might have done it, might have actually told him at least some of the truth of why she was so upset, only the door bell ringing got her attention. Mac shook her head, tearing her eyes away from Dick’s own intense gaze. She wiped her cheeks with her hands again and then moved to support Dick and take him back to his room.

“Come on, back to bed so I can see who’s at the door.”

He went because he kind of had to, but Dick wasn’t happy about it and it showed on his face. The doorbell ringing again cut off whatever he might have said about it and Mac hurried away to see who was there.

Forcing a smile did her no good at all because of all people Wallace was always going to see right through it.

“Mac? What the hell did that idiot do?” he asked, sure Dick must be at fault.

Mac laughed at the accusation that was so silly in her eyes and moved to hug Wallace, who was happy enough to hold onto her while she cried.

“I’m glad you’re here,” she told him. “Just another person to talk to is really good right now.”

“What are friends for?” asked Wallace, following her into the house as soon as he got the chance. “So, Casablancas didn’t make you cry?” he checked.

“Dick’s no trouble,” Mac assured Wallace. “I upset myself, no big deal. I guess I’ve just been working too hard, y’know?”

“Sure, I know,” he agreed, though he didn’t entirely believe her. “You know you need to talk, Mac, I’m here.”

“I know, but honestly, I’m fine. It’s just been a heck of a few days, that’s all.”

She smiled like she meant it and Wallace seemed to buy it, at least Mac told herself that he did. If nothing else, his visit was distracting her from what happened with Madison and preventing Dick from questioning her about all of that. For now, it was all Mac needed. Everything else she would worry about later.


	12. Chapter 12

Despite the fact she had promised Wallace she would slow down and take a break, Veronica had a tough time actually doing so. It really wasn’t in her nature to sit around doing nothing when there was work to be done. Besides, the more she thought about this attack on Dick, the more suspicious she got about Missy Stone.

Veronica’s gut feeling about the woman was that she was guilty of something. She doubted Missy herself had been Dick’s attacker, though women were completely capable of kicking butt. No, Veronica saw no evidence of bruised knuckles when she briefly met Missy, but she would lay good money that the bartender played her part in the crime for whatever reason. She might easily be the owner of the not-a-lipstick used in the crime. Dusting the cylinder for fingerprints brought up one slightly smudgy print that matched no-one in the database, but if Veronica could just nab something belonging to Missy. She knew where she lived, she could go talk to her and maybe get the use of her bathroom or something to pilfer what she needed. Two birds, one stone, it ought to be easy enough.

It was only a half truth when Veronica told her dad she was headed out to meet up with an old friend. The term was pushing boundaries in definitions, but she had met Missy before at least. Keith had been on her back to cut down her caseload too. It didn’t seem to occur to anyone that Veronica needed to be working, because it took her mind off other stuff that was less easy to cope with. Another talk with Logan on Skype last night just reminded her how far away he was and how long it would be until he was home again. It hurt too much to dwell on it, and so she worked.

Missy’s home address was easily lifted from the records Mac already pulled off the 09er’s computer system. A half-decent apartment on the lower class side of town, Veronica checked the number and decided the stairs were safer than the elevator given the state of it, even if that did mean running up three floors.

A pair of drunks nearly knocked her flying in the stairwell. From the look in their eyes when they passed her, Veronica doubted it was only the beers in their hands they had been enjoying today, and it was only mid-afternoon. There was a reason she had one hand on her taser.

“Classy,” she muttered to herself, turning to the apartment door.

Covering her hand with her sleeve just to be on the safe side, Veronica knocked and waited. Just when she thought nobody was going to answer, they did, but it wasn’t Missy who faced her.

“Can I help you?” asked the tall and kind of imposing young man that peered down at Veronica with an eyebrow raised.

“I hope so,” said Veronica with her best winning smile. “Is Missy home?”

“No, she’s out,” said the guy, folding his arms across his chest and leaning in the half-open doorway. “You a friend of hers?”

“Is that so surprising?” she checked, noting his tone. “Everybody has friends.”

“Missy doesn’t,” he said with a smirk as he shook his head. “’Cept for me, of course. Anyway, like I said, she’s not here. I can let her know you stopped by if you want to leave a name.”

“Sandy Appleby,” she said, still smiling as she held out a hand to shake. “And you are...?”

“Adam Durant,” he told her, shaking her offered hand. “She never mention me?”

“Nope, not once, and I can’t imagine why not, unless she’s real determined to keep you all to herself.”

Veronica watched Adam’s smirk grow into a real smile, his body language switching from defensive and a little cocky to happy and relaxed. Veronica always knew that a boy could be charmed just as easily as girl if you knew what to say, didn’t matter the age or the circumstance. So he was probably easily a half dozen years or more younger than Veronica, didn’t matter. The cougar was in these days, not that Veronica considered herself to be that old, but she would work any angle she could to catch the villain.

“I hate to be a bother,” she told Adam then. “It’s a long drive home again and I... Well, could I maybe use the little girls room?” she asked sweetly.

“Sure,” he agreed easily, opening the door wide to grant her access to the apartment.

‘Sandy’ thanked him and hurried in the direction that he pointed. Straight into the bathroom, Veronica locked the door behind her and took a deep breath. That was almost too easy, which put her a little on her guard. After all, suggesting she liked this guy could be dangerous yet. Getting into the apartment was the easy part, getting out might yet prove harder if Adam really took an interest. Good thing she had a plan for that too.

Opening up the bathroom cabinet, Veronica slid on a latex glove from her bag and retrieved an item that had to belong to Missy, since Adam sure wouldn’t have use of such things. There were two boxes, it was doubtful Missy would miss one of them and if she could lift a print, Veronica would have proof that the bartender owned the non-lipstick. That would place her at the scene of the crime at the very least. One step forward, hopefully.

Her mission complete, Veronica flushed the toilet and washed her hands. Before she left the bathroom, she grabbed her cell from her bag and faked a call, talking loudly as she exited into the living room again.

“Sweetie, you know I’d do anything for you, and just think, three weeks from now and we’ll be on our honeymoon. Can’t hardly wait!” she enthused, noting out of the corner of her eye how Adam stood and stared in shock. “Oh no, I can’t say that. No, I have company! Or actually, I am company,” she giggled, covering the mouthpiece a second as she looked at Adam. “Sorry, I really should get out of your hair. Thank you so much, you’re a lifesaver!”

Adam nodded absently and opened the apartment door so she could leave. On her way out, Veronica spotted a Hearst sweatshirt slung over the back of a chair. Somehow she suspected Missy was unlikely to be a student, Veronica had to guess that Adam was. One more fact to keep in mind if Missy did become a suspect.

* * *

When Wallace left the house, Mac really wanted to go with him. Being left alone meant having to face Dick and after what happened earlier, that was really the last thing she wanted to do. It made her sick that Madison could still get to her after all this time, especially when Ms Sinclair wasn’t even trying that hard.

Mac had told Wallace a half truth about the encounter, saying she felt wound up by the former bitch queen of Neptune High and that it was just the last straw on top of a bunch of other stresses and strains. Wallace was so kind, it only made Mac feel worse, mostly for lying to him, or at least withholding the whole truth. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust the guy after all this time, but the less people who knew, the better it was for everybody. Veronica knew, and she was the only one outside of Mac, her biological parents and her adopted parents. She may yet be forced to add Dick to the list, though Mac really hoped it didn’t come to that. She could try him with the story she told Wallace, but honestly, she actually thought he was more likely to call bull than her good buddy.

It wasn’t that Dick knew Mac better than Wallace could. It was more that they knew her in different ways. Living with someone, being as close as Mac and Dick had to be so far, it changed the dynamics, skewed everything all out of proportion. The connection Mac had always known they had in their own way seemed to be growing exponentially. The more she thought on it, the more Mac realised she and Dick were tied together and in more ways than just those that centred around Cassidy. Madison was a factor too, given that she had been Dick’s girlfriend off-and-on through high school, and was living the life that ought to have been Mac’s own.

She checked her watch. Dick needed his meds in the next five minutes so there was no avoiding him anymore. She couldn’t put her petty issues above his health and pain relief. Mac just wasn’t that selfish.

“Okay then,” she said to herself, grabbing a drink to take up to Dick.

She trudged up the stairs, steeled herself outside the bedroom door and then pushed her way in. Mac was surprised to see Dick sitting up against a bunch of pillows, pounding the game controller with too much force as he played Street Fighter against the computer. He didn’t glance away when she came in, didn’t greet her at all. Mac couldn’t help feeling as if she were a ghost he couldn’t even see or feel.

“Hey, Dick? You need to take your meds,” she told him, moving around to the nightstand to retrieve the correct bottle. “Are you listening to me?” she asked, since he hadn’t yet reacted.

“Why should I?” he shot back, still completely locked onto his game. “You don’t really want to talk to me anyway, right?”

Dick was being a petulant child and they both knew it. Though Mac was pretty sure Dick didn’t actually know the word petulant or what it meant, he was still being that way. Sure, she hadn’t exactly behaved like an adult with the whole Madison situation earlier, but she had her reasons. Maybe Dick had reasons too, but she hadn’t the time or inclination to listen to them.

“I’m sorry I was downstairs a long time. I figured if you really needed me you’d yell or call, it’s just, Wallace dropped by-”

“I don’t give a damn about Fennell coming to see you, Mac!” Dick suddenly yelled, tossing the game controller down on the bed and glaring at her. “What the hell happened before? I never saw you like that, you scared the crap outta me, and then you just dumped me in here and walked away. I thought we were, like, friends or something, but that was not cool.”

Mac was somewhat taken aback and not just because Dick was yelling at her so suddenly. He cared. It hit her on the head like an anvil in a Roadrunner cartoon and she couldn’t process. Dick Casablancas actually cared about her. Maybe it was unjust to be quite so shocked about it, but the thought hadn’t really occurred to her before. Mac was aware that she cared about his welfare, at least enough to be here and help him through his recovery from the attack, but she hadn’t really considered it to be a two-way thing. Dick liked women but that was for sex and all related activities. They were the kind of buddies who played video games together and shared pizza, but Mac didn’t think they had gotten beyond that, at least not from Dick’s perspective. Apparently she was wrong.

“I’m sorry,” she said too quietly, handing him a bottle of water and two pills to take.

Through his apparent anger and frustration, he took them and swallowed down his meds. As mad as he was at her, it would be dumb to make himself suffer any more physical pain and associated symptoms just because of that. Mac wasn’t a bad person, Dick knew she wouldn’t be here if she were, but he meant what he said. It was not cool how she wouldn’t talk to him when all he was trying to do was be a decent kind of friend.

“So,” he said, when he was done swallowing his pills. “You going to tell me now what had you totally ugly crying in your room? ‘Cause it seemed an awful lot like Madison started it. I know you’re way tougher than that, so what gives, Mac?”

She opened her mouth to give an answer but closed it again within a second. She didn’t know where to begin. There was a clear answer to Dick’s question, but it would mean revealing the biggest secret of her entire life. That had far-reaching consequences, not just for her but her family and Madison’s family as well. She couldn’t just shout the truth from the rooftops, but maybe she could tell someone, one person who might just get it.

“It... It’s a very long story,” she admitted after a while, hand rubbing her forehead that was bound to ache before this was over.

“Not like I’ve got anywhere to be,” said Dick, looking too serious.

Mac had an idea his arms would be folded over his chest if he didn’t have one in a sling. He sure was giving her a challenging stare and Mac was running out of ways to avoid this topic. She and Dick had been living in close quarters for a while now and there were weeks to go if she was staying until he was fully recovered. They couldn’t live with this hanging over their heads for all that time, it would become unbearable.

“Okay,” she sighed heavily, moving to sit on the edge of the bed. “Um, this is so weird, I never told anybody this before.”

Dick wasn’t sure what to think about how nervous Mac looked. Clearly she was about to tell him something big, something she never told anyone else. It made him wonder if he really should’ve been so adamant about asking what was up, but he felt like he had to know. His mind ran with a hundred different things that Mac might say next, from the possible to the entirely outlandlish, but for once he kept his mouth shut and just listened.

“Okay,” Mac started again, eyes mostly closed as she spoke. “When we were in high school, Veronica started running background checks on people’s parents for cash. I asked her to look into me because... because I thought maybe I was adopted. Turns out, I was.”

“Woah! That’s pretty huge,” said Dick, eyes wider than Mac had ever seen them.

“You don’t know the half of it,” she said, shaking her head. “See, it wasn’t as if my parents went to an adoption agency or a children’s home and picked me out. For four years of my life, they believed I was their daughter.”

She glanced up at Dick and realised she had lost him, and Mac wasn’t at all surprised. After all, she was being kind of cryptic so far, and Dick had never been the brightest bulb. Pushing her hair back off her face out of nervous habit more than because she really needed to, Mac cleared her throat and explained.

“It turned out that when I was born, there was another baby girl born within a couple of days of me. The people at the hospital got us mixed up. I went home with the Mackenzies, and their biological daughter went home with... with the Sinclairs.”

Mac knew her voice had tapered off a little at the end of her little speech, but in the silent room that contained only two of them, and the short distance between her and Dick, he had to have heard every word she said. When she dared to look at him, she could practically see as well as hear the cogs turning in his brain as he thought about what that truly meant.

“So, the other baby was Madison?” Dick checked he had it straight.

Mac nodded her head, feeling stupid when a lone tear streaked down her cheek, her hand shot up to wipe it away fast and she almost laughed at herself for being so dumb. A sniff held back further tears and she looked up to meet Dick’s eyes.

“She has my life, my biological family, everything, and I have what she should’ve had,” she said simply. “And she has no idea.”

“Dude, that’s... Damn, Mac, I don’t even know what to do with that.”

She wanted to laugh at his expression, and she wanted to cry because of the horrible situation she had to think about too much today. It wasn’t that she didn’t love the parents that raised her or the little brother who was so much easier to get along with now than he had been ten years ago. It wasn’t even about the money really and the fact she had lived as a have-not her whole life, whilst Madison got anything she ever wanted and then some. Honestly, Mac felt cheated out of something much more undefined. She couldn’t help the what ifs that swirled in her brain sometimes. She couldn’t help hating Madison for always, always flaunting what she had and truly never deserved.

“So, if you two had got switched back, or never got switched in the first place,” said Dick after a while, uninjured arm waving back and forth to demonstrate the words he said, “then you’d be Madison and she’d be you?”

“Kind of, I guess,” said Mac awkwardly.

“Then I would’ve dated you-Madison instead of bitch-Madison?”

Mac didn’t have an answer for that one. The idea of her and Dick dating, especially back in their high school days was equal parts disgusting and amusing if she were honest. Of course it was dumb and very Dick-like to think anything was that simple. Mac and Madison had their own personalities, and though the way they were raised was a factor, so was their genetic make up. There was really no way to tell if Dick would’ve dated Madison if she had been brought up as a Mackenzie, or if he would have dated Mac as a Sinclair. Avoiding answering his question entirely seemed like her best bet, and Mac was way more comfortable with letting the whole dating topic slide right by.

“Um, Dick? I don’t know if you would ever want to, but you really cannot tell anybody about this,” she said definitely. “The only person who knows besides me is Veronica because she dug up the dirt. Well, and both sets of parents, obviously. Nobody else has any idea, not my brother, Ryan, or Madison’s sister, Caitlin. Not Wallace or Logan, nobody.”

She impressed upon him with her tone and expression just exactly how serious she was about nobody knowing her secret and the importance of keeping it that way. To his credit, as shocked and overwhelmed as Dick looked, he did seem to get it.

“I can keep a secret,” he told her, so seriously that Mac couldn’t help but wonder.

Dick had to have secrets of his own, and she would lay money that more than one revolved around the nightmares she had seen and heard him experience more than once since she moved in here. He never did like to talk about them, but Mac knew he did remember them, at least some of the time. Maybe some time he would want to tell her about it, but they had done quite enough sharing for one day already.

“I should go finish up my work,” she said then, getting up from the bed and heading for the door.

“Hey, Macky?” he called after her, making her turn back at the last. “Thanks for telling me,” he said seriously, “and for what it’s worth, Madison would make a lousy you.”

Mac smiled somewhat at how dumb that sounded, but more so at the sentiment she knew was meant by those words.

“Thank you, Dick,” she said, more quietly than she meant to as she left him alone again.


	13. Chapter 13

“It almost feels wrong, being out by myself,” said Mac, shifting awkwardly in the seat opposite Veronica. “Like I’m missing something. I think this might be how new mother’s feel the first time they go out without the baby,” she said, frowning at the comparison she had made the moment she realised how weird it was.

“If we’re going to start referring to Dick as your new-born offspring, I might have to seek out the antacids,” said Veronica, making a face that showed how truly squicked she felt. “Actually, I might need something stronger than that.”

“Sorry.” Mac shook her head. “It is weird though, being out. Not bad weird, but weird. Wallace is saintly for sitting in.”

“He’s worried about you, and so am I,” said Veronica pointedly. “It’s great that you want to help out when Dick needs somebody, but you can’t run yourself into the ground.”

“Said the biggest hypocrite in the world.” Mac smiled. “Anyway, much as you would tell me if I fussed over you working too hard, I’m fine,” she promised her friend. “I was having kind of a hard time a couple of days ago when Wallace came visiting. He didn’t catch me at the best moment, but... well, it’s better now,” she said with a smile. “I, er... I talked to Dick about the whole me and Madison thing.”

Veronica’s eyes grew comically wide on hearing that.

“The whole of the you and Madison thing?” she checked.

Mac nodded.

“Wow. That’s kind of a big leap of faith,” said Veronica, shaking her head. “I mean, Dick is... You think he’s trustworthy enough to keep that kind of secret?”

“I cant imagine who he’d tell.” Mac shrugged, leaning back in the chair as she thought it over. “Nobody he would be hanging out with is going to care. This isn’t high school, the gossip mill isn’t quite so crazy. If he slipped up in front of Logan it wouldn’t be the end of the world, and you already know. I figured it couldn’t hurt, and I really didn’t know how else to explain the weirdness of my mood after we ran into the Sinclair monster.”

“How is good old Mad?” asked Veronica with a deliberately over-done grin. “Any tropical diseases? Disfiguring scars?”

“None of the above.” Mac smirked. “We got stuck by her car in gridlocked traffic the other day. She was with some guy, who I assume to be the fiancé or something. I really couldn’t care less on any other day, but she was so flippant about Dick’s attack and just a bitch about me. I don’t know, after all the stress lately, I boiled over.”

“It happens.” Veronica nodded in understanding, putting her hand over Mac’s own on the desk. “You cool now, Mackenzie?”

“The coolest,” she promised. “Seriously, V, it’s all good. I told Dick about the switch and he took it pretty well. Confused at first, but that’s Dick. He has this theory that if me and Madison were never switched or if we were switched back later, that him and me might’ve be the ones that dated in high school.”

“Ha!” Veronica exclaimed perhaps a little too loudly. “I’m sorry but that’s one of the crazier things I ever heard.”

“Really?” asked Mac, chuckling. “That’s something coming from the woman who dated a guy who seemed to be her worst enemy Junior Year, and is back together with him now, after so many ups and downs, a yo-yo couldn't keep up.”

Veronica tried to look shocked and appalled but failed miserably. She really had no place judging anybody’s relationships, least of all Mac’s choices in men. She had some pretty sucky taste herself, and though she loved Logan like nobody else in the world, even Veronica had to admit they hadn’t always had the healthiest of relationships. It still seemed weird to think of Mac and Dick as a couple in high school, even if they were buddies these days. Veronica decided to delve no further into the subject right now, and Mac seemed happy to let it go as well.

“So, I’m guessing I’m here because of work, and most likely the case of the attack on Dick?”

“Very perceptive, Miss Mackenzie.” Veronica nodded, pulling out a file and turning it towards her friend. “I got this report from my friend at the lab. That lipstick I told you about that turned out to be something else? It was a spray can, filled with knock-out juice. Enough to take down a small elephant from what my friend tells me, and yet, it leaves no chemical tracer on the victim that can be identified as a foreign substance.”

“Which explains why the doctors at the hospital and the cops never noticed anything weird.” Mac nodded in understanding as she read the results of the tests in the file. “So, who owned the not-a-lipstick?”

“That’s a little trickier to prove,” Veronica sighed, showing Mac another piece of paper. “I thought I got one decent fingerprint, and I tried to match it with the most likely suspect - Missy Stone.”

“One of the bartenders,” said Mac, recognising the name and then the picture she was shown, as one of the girls she had talked to Dick about.

“Exactly. Missy had a reason to be at the 09er and she was extra shifty when I asked about the night of the attack, but I can’t get a definite match on the print to prove the chemical weapon was hers.”

Mac took in a deep breath and let it out slowly as she looked over all the evidence. She hated that it wasn’t easier, that they couldn’t just identify the perp and make them pay for what they did to Dick. At least this spray thing proved somebody had a plan. This was no random attack, no simple mugging. Somebody intended to do Dick great harm and get away with it too. Mac felt sick, but she swallowed the nausea down. Concentrating on the facts would do better than worrying about what had happened or even what might have happened.

“The key might be the guy I asked you to look into in the Hearst records,” said Veronica then. “You have any luck with Adam Durant?”

“Sure,” Mac told her, reaching into her back pocket and pulling out a thumb drive.

Veronica caught it easily as Mac tossed it into her open hands. Plugging it into the laptop, she called up all the data Mac had gleaned from not just Hearts own databases, but also internet searches and the like.

“Yahtzee!” said Veronica happily. “Missy’s room-mate is a chemistry major!”

“Adam is Missy’s room-mate?” checked Mac, the look on her face proving she was wondering why that had been kept from her before.

“I didn’t want to say anything until I had all the information,” Veronica explained, a little defensive now. “If I told you I might be close to cracking the case, it’d get your hopes up, and you might tell Dick and get his hopes up. That’s not fair when I’m really not sure how close we are.”

Mac had to admit Veronica had a point. Though she knew very well that cases were tougher to crack than they might seem on the surface, even for the great Veronica Mars, Dick might have got excited about it, thought justice would be done, when there was next to no chance of finding concrete proof or getting anyone arrested for the attack.

“All of this is pretty circumstantial,” said Veronica, pushing her hair off her face with one hand and leaning her elbow on the desk. “Adam could have made this knock out spray and Missy could have used it on Dick, but there’s nothing to prove any of it. Where’s the motive?” she asked herself and the world at large, before focusing particularly on Mac. “You know as well as I do where these things normally stem from. Jealous exes, cheated partners. I mean, Dick has a rep. Are you sure he and Missy were never... bed buddies?” she said as diplomatically as she could.

Mac’s mouth opened and closed without any sound coming out and Veronica regretted saying a word. The longer this situation went on, Mac living with Dick and being his only friend in so many ways, Veronica wondered how close they were really getting. She heard a lot about video games and take out food, a little about health checks and sunsets. Certainly Mac and Dick were becoming pretty good friends, but she had never expected them to be so close that he got to hear the story of the Mackenzie and Sinclair baby switch. It made Veronica feel awkward even talking about Dick the way she knew him, the drunken man-slut from their days in high school and college. The guy Mac was becoming closer to all the time seemed so different, so much more human and relatable.

“Dick said he only recognised Missy as a bartender,” said Mac, looking more at her shoes than anything else. “He would’ve told me if there was more to it.”

“Yes, because men never lie about women they’ve slept with,” said Veronica, a reflex more than anything, though she regretted her smart-mouthed comment the moment she met Mac’s eyes.

There was something akin to hurt in there and it made Veronica worry. She almost asked if there was more going on than even she had suspected but Mac spoke before she could.

“I’ll talk to him about it again,” she promised. “Um, is there anything else we need to go over? I don’t want to leave Wallace on Dick-sitting duty too long. Those two never really did see eye-to-eye.”

She didn’t mean to be so awkward and uncomfortable. Mac couldn’t even really explain why she felt this way, and was glad that Veronica hadn’t asked. Mac and Dick had become good friends recently, it was tough not to when they lived together, practically in each other’s pockets despite the size of the house. It was necessary to be close, physically when Dick needed the help, and in other ways because there really was no-one else to talk to about the kind of things that affected the two of them. Not that they did talk about it most of the time, but it was oddly comforting to know that they could if they wanted to, Mac supposed.

Any comfortable feelings she had developed whilst living with Dick evaporated during her conversation with Veronica, and in all the hours that followed she just couldn’t seem to get them back. Mac knew she had to broach the subject of Dick’s sex life at some point to find out if he really had known Missy Stone better than he said. Mac wouldn’t have flinched in asking him outright before, but now was different somehow, and she didn’t even really know why.

It was dumb after what she had told him about her and Madison. Mac divulged her biggest secret to Dick, so it should be no problem at all for ask for the same transparency when it came to some random girl he may or may not have taken to bed, and yet Mac struggled to just do it.

She spent all afternoon trying to find a good time to bring up the subject, but even with all the easy ins he gave her, like asking if ‘Ronnie’ had any breakthroughs on his case or making a big deal about some swim wear model in a magazine, Mac just couldn’t seem to spit out the question.

It was getting late and they were crashed out together on his bed playing video games, as they did most days at some point or other. Mac figured with both Dick’s attention and her own mostly on the screen, it might be slightly less mortifying to ask him about Missy and any possible relationship he had with her.

“So, there was one thing me and Veronica talked about today that I’ve been meaning to check with you,” she said, entirely out of the blue. She paused in thought a moment as she took the next corner as carefully as possible, maintaining pole position in the Brazilian Grand Prix. “You remember the pictures I showed you of those girls, Stephanie and Missy?”

“The bartenders at the 09er? Sure,” said Dick, manoeuvring around Lewis Hamilton and grinning all over his face at the success.

“Well, Veronica just wanted me to double-check, about Missy in particular,” she went on, perhaps a little too quickly and quietly to be understood, but Mac pressed on regardless. “She just needs to know if you... Well, if you knew her as more than a bartender.”

“I told you I never slept with Missy,” Dick reminded her, frowning some when Mac glanced at him, though she wasn’t sure if that was concentration at the game or annoyance at her questioning. “I’m pretty careful about getting with the help. Y’know that whole thing about not crapping where you eat? There are enough hotties swarming all over guys like me at bars, I really don’t hit on the staff, y’know, unless they’re really, really smokin’,” he said, grinning wickedly now.

Mac tried not to feel disappointed on seeing and hearing a little too much of the Dick Casablancas she never liked and couldn’t respect. He seemed so different lately, and she honestly believed that it was as much her getting to know him better as it was that he had grown up. Everything got blown out of the water if he could revert so easily. Mac hoped her disappointment didn’t show on her face and tried desperately to concentrate on the game just in case.

“Okay,” she said stiffly. “I just... Veronica asked me to check.”

Dick looked sideways at her for a second, not sure what to make of Mac’s body language. He was pretty good at knowing what women wanted and identifying when they were pissed. Years of practice made Dick kind of an expert when it came to chicks, but Mac wasn’t your average woman, certainly nothing like the kind he was used to hanging out with, sleeping with, whatever. Mac was different, special, for lack of a better term. They had become buds over the last few weeks, proven more so than ever a couple of days ago when she told him what had to be the biggest secret of her life. It made Dick want to be really honest with her too, but he wasn’t the kind of guy to have a lot of secrets and those he did have, well, he was too uncomfortable to even think on them much, never mind say the words out loud. One thing came to mind now, something he never told anyone, not even Logan. Mac could know it, it wouldn’t matter much. In fact, of all people in the world, she was the one person who should know.

“You remember that day at the beach, Freshman year of college?” he asked, eyes glued to the screen, even when he felt Mac look his way. “I told you I was sorry for how I treated you back when you dated my brother.”

“I remember,” Mac said softly.

“Yeah, not my finest moment,” said Dick, almost laughing at himself it seemed. “I mean, the apology was cool, I meant to do that and I’m glad I told you, but then you were so cool about everything, I just... Trying to kiss you was so dumb.”

“I think my hand in your face proved that,” she agreed, trying not to blush, trying even harder to keep her focus on the video game car she was steering - three cars had passed her in the last ten seconds.

“It was a dumbass move, but I’m not sorry about it,” said Dick, in a soft kind of a voice that Mac was sure she had never heard before. “Sometimes I think maybe if it had been me instead of Beav that you liked, then maybe... I don’t know, maybe things would’ve all been different.”

Mac couldn’t imagine what he was getting at. If she and Dick had dated in high school? It was a ridiculous concept and one that had made her laugh before. It certainly cracked up Veronica, and squicked her out to boot. Now, hearing Dick talk about it this way, Mac didn’t think it was so crazy. She thought about what he said before, about how they might have been together if she was raised a Sinclair instead of Madison. She thought he was kidding, on some level she was sure he was trying to make a joke, but maybe not. Dick's logic was a little askew to the rest of the planet, but Mac could make sense of it more often than not these days. Certainly if they had got together in years gone by, the world would have been different place by now, or maybe not. She would probably have been here now, taking care of a man that she felt she was only just now truly getting to know, that she might have known and liked a whole lot sooner given half the chance to see the real person beneath the ridiculous exterior.

“Hey, Mackenzie! Get your head in the game!” said Dick so suddenly that she physically jumped.

Mac refocused her eyes and hit the accelerator on the game controller. She had gone from pole position to half way down the field in no time at all. God only knew how long she had been zoned out, but apparently it was long enough for Dick to gain ground in the race, and to get back to his normal self after what he must have considered a moment’s soppy madness. It didn’t matter. Mac wasn't really in a place where she was ready to deal with Dick getting serious and sweet on her in a big way. A little at a time was about all she could handle right now, and in the meantime, she had a championship to win!


	14. Chapter 14

Mac was walking past Dick’s bedroom door when she heard a crash, not loud enough to be a person falling down, but something that she felt the need to investigate. She found Dick looking generally pissed at something, a mark on the opposite wall and a game controller in two pieces on the carpet.

“What happened?” she asked, as if she couldn’t guess.

“What happened?” Dick echoed, looking mad about something as yet undisclosed. “Somebody jumped me in an alley and left me for dead, that’s what happened!” he told Mac angrily. “So I gotta live with broken bones and an all-around boredomfest for the rest of my life!”

Mac winced at his volume and tried not to smile too much at Dick’s over-dramatics. He really was being pretty childish, though she could understand his frustration at being stuck in bed so long. As much as he loved video games and TV, the guy had to be sickening for the outside world, for surfing, partying, and all his other favourite activities.

“It’s not for the rest of your life,” she told him what he already knew, coming over to sit on the edge of the bed. “It’s six weeks tops, and you're practically half way through that already. Be grateful, Dick. Some people really do have to deal with being bed-ridden or wheelchair-bound permanently, and you could’ve been one of them,” she said seriously, meeting his eyes.

Dick let out a huge sigh, pushing his bangs of his forehead with his free hand. He knew he was over-reacting, but quite honestly, it was hard to care today.

“I know,” he grumbled. “But dude, seriously? This is not how I want to spend my birthday.”

“It’s your birthday?” said Mac with evident surprise. “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t... Happy birthday,” she got out eventually, realising she probably didn’t need to explain how she didn’t know that. There was really no reason why she should.

“Thanks,” said Dick, finding a slight smile. “No big deal, I guess. It’s just, one more year and I’m staring thirty in the face. Kinda wanted to make my twenties count while I got ‘em.”

“You do know that thirty isn’t old, right?” said Mac, trying not to laugh at him and finding it hard. “Seriously, Dick, you have all the time in the world for birthday parties.”

“Maybe, maybe not,” he said, looking too serious all of a sudden. “It’s just, when you think about the people in this town, all the stuff that happened when we were in high school - Lilly, the bus crash, Beav - some people don’t live to get old, and I’m not sayin’ I wanna be old, but those kids that were gone before they were even twenty makes me wanna live the hell out of my life before it runs out on me.”

Mac felt oddly tearful as she listened to Dick talk, watching his face, his eyes, unable to look away. He made a good point, she couldn’t deny it. They really should make the most of life, because it had the capacity to be stupid short.

“I mean, this thing that happened to me, whoever smacked me around, you just said it could’ve been worse. Not just wheelchairs and home help. I could be in the ground already.”

“Dick, don’t,” said Mac, shifting uncomfortably.

“It is what it is, Macky,” he told her, shrugging his shoulders. “I just don’t wanna waste my life, y’know?”

She did know. She understood exactly where he was coming from and it made Mac wish she could do more to help him out. There really was no way for Dick to be in the middle of a party right now. He could barely stand unaided with his bad ankle, and got out of breath fast thanks to his busted ribs. Throw in a broken arm and the occasional dizzy spell, plus the fact he was on an alcohol-free diet until he was done taking the painkillers, there really was no way to have the good time Dick was used to. Of course, that didn’t mean he couldn’t have a good birthday.

“Okay,” she said after too long sat in silent thought. “You feeling up to getting your butt down the stairs today?” she asked Dick.

“If the trip’s worth the effort” he told her.

Mac smiled. “It’ll be worth it, I promise.”

“Then I’m good to go.”

“Easy, tiger,” she urged him to lie back down when he tried to get up immediately. “I got plans to make first. Give me a couple of hours,” said Mac, checking her watch as she got up to leave. “I’ll be back” she said in Terminator-style and then she was gone.

Dick couldn’t get the grin off his face at both her awful impression of Schwarzenegger and the fact she was clearly planning some kind of surprise for his birthday. There was no way they were going to party like he usually would. Dick may be dumb, but he knew damn well Mac was not going to let him drink and he was in no fit state to dance. He might get a gift out of this though, maybe dinner out in the world somewhere. Quite honestly, Dick didn’t care. If Mac was making plans for him then they would be cool, whatever they were.

It was weird how she seemed to know him so well already, and how well they just naturally got along. Back in the day, he never would’ve guessed they could really be friends. Dick never thought for a moment he would want to be buds with any chick, least of all a nerd like Mac. The world changed a person, even a guy like Dick Casablancas, and maybe he didn’t mind that so much. Everybody had to grow up sometime, and he was twenty nine as of today. As much as he wanted to live his life to the full because of all the teens he had seen lose their lives before him, Dick was also patently aware of the people around him who could be ripped away just as easily. Logan was fighting for God and country, could easily be blown up or shot down at any time. Veronica faced off with dangerous criminals and such all the time, and any one of them could get in a lucky shot, a fatal blow. Nobody was safe all the time, and Dick’s friends had a habit of putting themselves right in the line of fire. If they weren’t proof that life should be lived to the full whilst he had it, Dick didn’t know what was.

“Dick!” Mac’s voice yelled from somewhere out in the hall. “Did I leave my cell in your room or mine?”

“It’s not in here!” he called back, after a quick glance over the bed and the nightstand.

“Thanks!” she replied, hurrying to the bedroom down the hall.

Dick smiled as he saw her flash by the door. He liked that Mac automatically called that room ‘mine’. He liked having her around, not just because she was company and help, but because she was Mac. It was weird, because Dick had never once wanted to live with a woman before. The only female he ever shared space with was his mother, and later his step-mother, Kendall. It wasn’t the same as choosing to live with a woman, somebody you cared about. No girlfriend Dick ever had was a person he would want to live with, and he never really had chicks as friends. There was Ronnie, but she was only ever really in his life because of Logan. They weren’t buds, and she would never want to be, Dick was certain on that. He knew all the reasons too, and most of them he would rather not dwell on.

“Hey, Mac Attack?” he called when he heard her coming back the other way. “You don’t have to make a big deal, about my birthday or whatever,” he told her.

“Dick? Stop being an ass,” she told him, smiling good-naturedly. “And practice your game,” she advised, gesturing towards the video game console, “if you want to stand a chance of winning on your birthday.”

“Yes, ma’am,” said Dick, saluting her with his good hand and reaching for the controller that he hadn’t thrown against the wall. “Geez, you are not a chick to be messed with,”

Mac’s laughter rang like a bell as she headed off to make her plans, and Dick was pretty sure he never heard a better sound.

* * *

“Hey,” said Veronica as she arrived at the house.

“Hi, honey,” her father greeted her with an absent wave. “Did you know there are at least twenty five different ways to cook salmon?”

With wide eyes, Veronica dropped down onto the couch next to Keith and observed the show on the TV screen. She tilted her head as she stared, then picked up the remote and turned off the set.

“Yeah, no more daytime for you,” she told her father.

Keith smirked, knowing she had a point and turned a little on the couch to look at her.

“If I said ‘no more cases for you’, would that work as easy?”

“No comment,” she replied, smiling, her eyes closed for a moment. “I wouldn’t mind so much if all the hard work was paying off, but I am getting nowhere fast this week.”

“Sometimes it can be that way, you know that comes with the territory,” Keith sympathised. “You take some nice pictures?” he asked then, gesturing towards the camera case hanging from her arm.

“Nothing useful,” she sighed, putting both the camera and her purse onto the cushion between them. “I was staking out Missy and Adam.”

“Back to the Casablancas case, huh?”

“Yup,” Veronica confirmed, popping the ‘p’. “I thought maybe, just maybe, one of them would give some clue to their involvement in the attack, but nothing so far. Apart from going home to the same place at the end of the day, you wouldn’t even know they were friends.”

Keith hated to see Veronica look so dejected. She was one of the smartest people he knew, and one of the most determined. There wasn’t much in the way of mystery she couldn’t solve eventually, and Keith was happy to say he was similarly gifted. The problem was the getting to the right answers sometimes. The road was full of twists and turns, and occasional dead ends. It was frustrating as hell, but it was just the way it worked sometimes. Keith only wished he could be more help, but until his body recovered from his ‘accident’, he was less than useful to his daughter or their business.

“You ever think of coming at this from a different angle?” he asked Veronica then. “Did you ever ask Dick for a list of people who he may have recently angered?” he clarified when Veronica peered at him oddly through only one open eye.

She had her head flung back into the couch cushions like she was trying to go to sleep, never mind the fact it was barely lunch time. Keith was pretty sure she had been out since stupid o’clock this morning, so it wasn’t that strange.

Stifling a yawn, Veronica answered her father’s question after a moment’s consideration.

“Might be a long list of angry women.”

“And their husbands and boyfriends,” admitted Keith.

Veronica sighed. “Maybe. I'll talk to Mac about it sometime, but not today,” she said definitely, stretching across the cushions and letting her head drop onto Keith’s shoulder. “I'm beat, Pops,” she told him. “What say you and me take a little time, catch up on some TiVo?”

“Sounds good to me, sweetheart,” he agreed, kissing her hair. “Y’know we have a lot of daddy-daughter time to catch up on now you’re back here to stay.”

Smiling widely, Veronica reached for the remote and fired up the TV again. There wasn’t much she had missed about Neptune in all the years she had been away, but her father was most definitely one of the few people she was glad to have come home to.


	15. Chapter 15

Dick wasn’t sure what was going on, but he did know that Mac was doing something special for his birthday. He sat in his room for two hours or more whilst she ran around downstairs doing whatever she was doing, leaving Dick to wonder exactly what was in the planning.

His frame of reference for birthday celebrations was pretty small. Dick recalled a couple of parties when he was a kid, before his mom split. All PB&J and ice-cream, cakes, balloons and a hired magician when he was really small, and then a day out at Magic Mountain just as soon as he was tall enough to go.

Later in life, parties had involved drinking until he almost passed out, dancing in the dark, and taking at least one woman if not more home to his bed.

Dick couldn’t imagine what Mac’s idea of a birthday celebration was going to be, especially when there was really only two of them to take part in it.

The immediate thought that came to mind as to what a man and a woman might do together for fun was firmly pushed out of Dick’s head the second it appeared. Mac was not that kind of chick. Not that he thought she was all virginal or anything. He knew way better than that, but she sure wasn’t the kind to sleep with a guy just for kicks. Dick actually thought he liked her better for not being that way, and yet it would be a lie to say he never thought about her as a woman he wouldn’t mind getting closer to.

Just when his thoughts began to wander back into dangerous territory, Mac had come to fetch him from his room. Dick was supported as far as the stairs and then sat down at the top so he could bump his way down on his butt.

At the bottom of the steps, Mac helped him back onto his feet, their arms wrapping around each other as naturally as breathing after going through a similar routine so many times in the past days and weeks.

“Okay, now close your eyes.”

“If I do am I gonna lose my pants?”

“In your dreams, dude!”

She tried not to laugh because his attempts at humour really shouldn’t be funny. Unfortunately, the more time Mac spent with Dick, the funnier he seemed to be. He also seemed to be developing a sweet side and was growing on her in a way that Mac ought to be uncomfortable with. Strangely, this was maybe the most comfortable of uncomfortable feelings she had ever had in her life, as she assisted a hobbling Dick into the main living room. when she had him stood exactly where she wanted him, she instructed him to open his eyes.

“Happy Birthday, Dick,” she said, as he took in the scene before him.

She had dragged the table further into the centre of the room and it was covered in all Dick’s favourite snacks as if they were expecting twenty people to help them eat it. In the centre was an enormous cake, haphazardly iced with ‘Happy Birthday’ and his name. The candles were only two in number, but in the shapes of the figures 2 and 9. There were a few balloons tied to the chairs and the doors that led out onto the deck. A banner above that also wished him a happy birthday. Dick was stunned.

“Dude, this is like... You did all this for me?” he checked, looking down at Mac who was curled into his side still, by necessity as he might fall down without her support.

“You’re the only Dick I know,” she countered, the double-entendre not lost on either of them.

Mac hardly dare look at him, knowing full well that he was staring now. She dared to meet his eyes for all of a second, sharing a smile before she looked back at the party set up. She opened her mouth to say they should sit down and get to eating already, given the sheer volume of food, but all words stuck in her throat when she felt Dick’s arm tighten around her shoulders.

“You are so cool,” he told her, in that soft tone so rarely heard from him, and then there was a kiss dropped lightly on the top of her head.

Mac tried not to squirm or shy away. Honestly, she didn’t want to cause offence and it was sweet that he was so grateful, but she just wasn’t used to it. Affection was fine, but this was Dick Casablancas. As friendly as they had become over the last few weeks, she really wasn’t ready for this kind of thing.

“Um, we should eat some of this food,” she said, encouraging him to move with her towards the table. “And I have drinks - non-alcoholic for the invalid, obviously - and music all ready to go.”

She deposited Dick in a chair and continued running around like a crazy person. Mac was hardly aware that he was just staring at her as she moved around the room, in and out the door, thinking aloud as far as he could tell. When he said she was cool, it really didn’t cover even half of what he meant to tell her. Mac was amazing, incredible, beyond a good friend, that was for sure. This was the biggest surprise and the best kind of party he could have hoped for on a birthday that he expected to be nothing but boredom and pain.

“Mac?” he called for her attention, but she didn’t stop moving.

“I have to go bring down the Playstation,” she told him, rushing toward the stairs. “I told you to practice. Now you get to see if you can win at the old age of twenty nine,” she told him with a grin.

Dick almost laughed at her enthusiasm, but at the same time, there was a broken little boy inside of him that wanted to cry. He didn’t deserve all this. It was almost too much.

* * *

Veronica was cueing up the next episode on the TiVo whilst her dad took a bathroom break when suddenly her cell started to ring in her purse. If it had been anyone else she would have shut off the phone and ignored them, just for today, but when she fished her cell from her bag, it was Wallace’s name on the screen. She had to answer.

“Hey, Wallace,” she greeted him. “Everything okay?”

“Yes and no, V,” he told her, sounding just a little too serious.

Immediately, Veronica was on high alert.

“I heard something at the school today. Thought I should let you know.”

“Colour me intrigued,” she said, gesturing to Keith as he re-entered the room to let him know she would just be a minute.

“Well, there was some gossip in the Teacher’s Lounge. I don’t normally be listenin’ in when it’s all who slept with who and everything, but I heard Dick’s name come up,” Wallace explained. “One person told another that Lucy had her baby last week, and then there was all this talk about who the father was, Dick Casablancas or Darryl somebody.”

“You sure they said Lucy?” asked Veronica, grabbing a pen and paper and noting down the facts. “Not Missy?”

“No, it was definitely Lucy, no last name though,” confirmed Wallace. “Darryl had a last name but I missed it, sorry.”

“No, that’s great, Wallace. Could be really helpful. Thank you so much,” she told him.

They ended their call within a minute and Veronica turned to Keith, explaining what information she had just gained.

“Well, that might narrow the field when you talk to Dick about his recent liaisons.”

“Not so much recent apparently,” said Veronica with a knowing look. “Around nine months ago, I’m guessing.”

“You think a guy like that will remember who he slept with so long ago?” asked Keith sceptically. “From what I’ve heard about young Richard, he enjoys the pleasures of a lot of women’s company on a fairly regular basis.”

“It’s in his best interest to try to remember,” said Veronica, shrugging her shoulders. “Right now, this is just about the only lead we have.”

* * *

Mac drank down the last of her beer and put the bottle on the table with a little more force than she meant to. She leaned back heavily on the lounger and breathed the fresh sea air.

“I could get used to this,” she declared, the position of her head meaning she seemed to be talking more to the moon than to Dick.

“Pretty sweet, huh?” he agreed, from his place on the next lounger over.

They had spent hours playing video games, eating their way through so much party food it was probably a crime, and watching a couple of Marvel movies before they were just beat. Mac had moved the party out onto the deck so they could get some air and some sun for as long as it lasted. They sat in weirdly comfortable silence for the most part, a little music in the background as they drank their way through some beers (the non-alcoholic kind for Dick but not for Mac) and just ‘chillaxed’ as Dick liked to say.

Mac had to admit she had really enjoyed herself, and couldn’t really blame the beer for the good time that was had. Sure, it was taking the edge off her nerves after a brief moment of freaking out when Dick got serious on her before, but she was pretty sure she would have enjoyed today even without the buzz of the booze.

“One day I’d love to have a house like this,” she said, staring out at the ocean. “Or at least a place where I could enjoy this kind of view every day. It’s as beautiful now as it is by day.”

“It is cool, and so great when you can see the waves getting good. It’s a straight run down the beach into the water with my board,” he explained with a light in his eyes that Mac loved to see. “I miss the surf, man. It’s probably the worst part about all this,” he said, gesturing to his injuries with the bottle in his free hand.

“Yeah, that has to suck,” said Mac thoughtfully, wondering how she would feel if for some reason she couldn’t use her computer for a while or something.

“But hey, flipside. If I didn’t get all beat up, you wouldn’t be here, and we wouldn’t have had this kick ass birthday party,” said Dick with a grin that was just infectious. “To silver linings, right?” he said, pushing his beer bottle her way as if to toast.

Mac picked up her empty and clinked it against Dick’s own. She looked to the pack for another beer and was mildly concerned to find there were no more.

“Oops?” she giggled when she realised what she had done. “Wow. It’s a long time since I downed a six pack in one afternoon.”

“Dude, you can really drink, for a chick,” Dick told her, at which Mac only laughed all the more.

Whether it was his expression when he said it, or the weirdness of him calling her both dude and chick in the same sentence that caused it, Mac really couldn’t have said. Truth was, Dick was just funny, and Mac was just happy... and a little drunk. Maybe tipsy would be a more accurate descriptor, but Mac couldn’t be bothered to figure it out right now.

“You wanna talk surprises about people? You’re really a lot nicer person than the world thinks, Dick Casablancas,” she told him without a moment’s thought.

She turned to look at him with the biggest smile on her face, but he got the idea that she wasn’t joking. Mac was serious enough in her statement, but she was a little off kilter thanks to the booze. It was weird, because even Dick felt a little buzzed, and he knew damn well all four bottles he had gotten through were distinctly lacking in alcohol. The crappy taste was enough to convince him of that, but he did appreciate that Mac had done her best for him.

“I’m not so nice,” he told her, perhaps more seriously than he meant to.

“Well, you’re certainly not the complete ass I always thought you were,” she said definitely, smiling almost too much. “You have a nice ass though.”

She laughed when she said it, clamping her hand over her mouth like she was afraid what other things might come spilling out if she didn’t physically hold them back. She was muttering something like ‘Oh my God, did I really just say that?’ but Dick couldn’t make out the exact wording through her hands over her face and the laughter.

It was nice to hear her laugh like that, to see her so happy. Dick knew he had caused her pain in the years gone by, that Madison and Beaver and so many others had given Mac reasons to cry. It was so incredible when she laughed, like watching the fireworks on the fourth of July. Dick wasn’t exactly a poetic guy, but it was all he could think of as he sat there watching her just cracking up and being beautiful.

“What?” she asked when she caught him staring, leaning perhaps a little too far into his personal space.

There was no way Dick was going to tell her what he was really thinking. That would be way too dangerous.

“You’re drunk, Mackenzie,” he said instead, leaning over the arm of his lounger towards her without hardly even noticing he was doing it.

“You’re drunk!” she countered. “Except for the part where you’re not ‘cause that’s not alcohol,” she realised aloud.

She met his eyes then and got a little lost in the blueness of them. Mac could see the ocean in those eyes, and a strange mixture of deep sadness and incredible light that was almost unbearable to keep staring into, and yet impossible to look away from. Her hand came up of its own volition, moving Dick’s blond hair away from those eyes she was slowly getting lost in. Usually she stopped herself from doing stuff like this. Right now, she had completely forgotten why.

“What are you doing?” he asked, moving his head just slightly though not enough to really dislodge her fingers from his hair.

“I like your hair,” she told him, looking just a little giddy. “I like... being here with you.”

The admission came as much of a surprise to Mac as it did to Dick, but the next move here seemed pretty obvious from both sides. It wouldn’t take much for one of them to move just enough for their lips to meet. One sweet kiss that could lead anywhere. The ringing of Dick’s cell phone was enough to break the moment completely before anything could actually occur.

“Logan?” said Dick in confusion, knowing this specific ringtone had been assigned to his best bud.

He moved away from Mac, reaching for his cell and accepting the call.

“Dude!” he declared happily on realising he was right. “Logan, man, I was so not expecting you to call!”

Mac sunk back into her seat and covered her face with her hands for a second. It was so sweet that Logan called to presumably wish Dick a happy birthday, she considered, and yet her brain was running a mile a minute right over the top of that thought with a whole bunch of jumbled wonderings about what almost just happened between her and Dick.

“Very, very bad,” she muttered, scrambling to her feet, feeling suddenly sober.

There was a lot of clean up to do before she went to bed, and now seemed like a good time to start on it. Mac was sure Dick wouldn’t notice her leave the deck for a good long while. Right now, she would rather be ignored than face up to what she had almost allowed to happen.


	16. Chapter 16

Veronica could really do with being anywhere but here, but needs must and she didn’t exactly have a choice. It was for a case that she was standing on the doorstep of Dick Casablancas house, and quite honestly, she knew she was going to have to get used to being around the guy. Not only was he Logan’s best bud still, but he and Mac sure were getting close of late. Besides, for all the bad Dick had done, Veronica knew she was going to have to learn to let it go. She had done so with Logan and so many other people in her life. With Dick at least she could reasonably believe that he did not know what harm he caused sometimes, he was just a thoughtless jerk.

It was weird that Veronica had to ring the bell twice before anybody answered. Obviously Dick wasn’t going to come running in his current condition, but she kind of figured Mac would be up at ‘em by ten a.m. As a rule, she was pretty good about being a morning person, unless she was up all of the night before getting her hack on. Maybe that was the issue, or maybe Dick had a bad night. Suddenly Veronica felt bad for being impatient, and ever more so when she saw the state of Mac.

“Wow, you look horrible,” she said perhaps a little too honestly.

Mac winced terribly as the sunshine fell on her face. The day was too bright, her head too big, and the world too loud. Man, it had been a long time since she felt this awful, and she knew at least ninety percent of it was a combination of too many beers and not enough preparation. On the odd occasion when she had got into the realms of drunk before, Mac had ensured she also downed enough water before she went to sleep and started the new day promptly with a fried breakfast and aspirin. Everything went to hell when you weren’t ready for a heavy night, or for the dumbass things you might do in the presence of Dick Casablancas.

“Yesterday was Dick’s birthday,” she muttered, gesturing for Veronica to come inside. “There may have been beer.”

“For him too?” asked Veronica curiously. “I mean, with the meds...”

“No, none for him. Lots for me apparently,” said Mac with a wry smile, running a hand back through hair that stuck up at all angles. “Please remind me never to drink again?”

Veronica nodded and smiled. She had been in this position herself a few times, and it was never fun. Of course, Veronica’s smile faded fast as she followed Mac to the kitchen and her mind hit the various possibilities that came with crazy drunkenness.

“Mac? How drunk were you last night?” she checked, one eyebrow quirked.

In her hungover state, it took her friend a minute to realise what that question meant. Unfortunately, she didn’t have the right to look quite as shocked by it as she might have, and Veronica couldn’t help but notice.

“I don’t wanna talk about it,” she muttered, throwing two aspirin in her mouth and chugging a large amount of water from a bottle.

“Okay, consider me butting out,” declared Veronica, hands raised in mock surrender.

She pulled herself up onto a stool by the breakfast bar and concentrated on the matter at hand. She was here for a purpose and it wasn’t to ask Mac about any drunken fumble she may have had with Dick. Of course, asking her about Dick’s previous transgressions with other woman, one of which he may have got pregnant, really didn’t appeal with Mac in this state, most especially if she and Dick were getting closer than ever just recently.

“I kissed him,” she said all out of the blue.

Veronica stared, wide-eyed at her friend.

“Okay,” she replied after a beat. “Just one kiss?”

“Isn’t that bad enough?” asked Mac, flopping onto the stool opposite her friend and allowing her forehead to hit the Formica. “Oh God, I’m an idiot.”

“Not an idiot,” Veronica assured her, lightly ruffling the back of her hair. “A drunken fool, maybe, but who hasn’t been there?” she said with a good natured smile that Mac only saw with one eye as she twisted her head to look up. “What did Dick say?”

“Nothing. One minute I’m kissing him, the next the phone rang. Logan wishing him happy birthday.”

Veronica nodded, silently letting out an inward sigh of relief. Maybe that was wrong, maybe she should be less judgemental about the possibility of Mac and Dick as a couple, but that wasn’t even the problem really. If they fell in love and wanted to be together, well, it’d be very weird but Veronica would learn to adjust, she was sure. The problem was that Dick wasn’t the fall in love type, he was very distinctly the love ‘em and leave ‘em type, even if those he was leaving were potentially pregnant apparently. The last thing Veronica wanted for her good friend Mac was the kind of guy who would treat a woman like trash that way.

“You guys talk after that?” she asked gently.

Mac pulled herself up off the counter, running both hands over her face and back through her hair that was getting more crazy all the time.

“Not really,” she admitted. “I was cleaning up all the birthday stuff, then I helped Dick back to his room. He never said anything about the kiss, just thanked me for the party and that was that.”

Veronica wasn’t sure what to say for the best. A part of her wanted to be sympathetic and kind, not even mention what she really came over here for since it was probably only going to cause Mac further pain. On the other hand, Veronica had always lived by the fact that honesty was the best policy in these kind of things. They were never going to crack the case of Dick’s attack if she didn’t push forward with what she knew. Besides, Mac should have all the information if anything really was going to happen with her and Dick in the future. Now seemed like a horrible time to bring it up, but maybe it was better to have all the badness at once, get it over with, and then recover fully after.

“I wish I knew what the right thing was to say right now,” she admitted with a sigh.

“Veronica, I don’t even know what I would want you to say,” admitted Mac, finding a weak smile. “But I’m guessing you had some work-related thing for me to do, so shoot. I’m not saying I’ll get to it for a few hours, but just as soon as I can hold my head up without help, I’m there.”

Veronica nodded in understanding and reached into her purse to grab her notebook. She turned to the page she had scribbled notes on during and after her conversation with Wallace. Her stomach twisted when she read the details again. There was no way to dress this up, she was just going to have to tell Mac the truth of the rumours that were going around and hope she didn’t take it too badly.

“Um, so Wallace called me yesterday. He overheard some talk in the Teacher’s Lounge... about Dick.”

“About the attack?” asked Mac, suddenly just a little more awake.

“No, not exactly,” Veronica admitted, shaking her head. “But it may lead us to a person or people who would have a motive for giving Dick those injuries of his.”

“Nothing could justify that, Veronica,” said Mac definitely. “They could’ve killed him. Dick is a lot of things, but he didn’t deserve that.”

“I know,” she agreed. “I never said they were justified, only that they might’ve had a motive,” she confirmed, before going on with the information she had gained. “It seems there’s a woman named Lucy who recently gave birth to a child, and rumour has it that the father could be her boyfriend, Darryl, or...”

“Or it could be Dick,” Mac finished for her, when Veronica seemed reluctant to do so.

She didn’t even have to see her friend nod her head to know it was true, it was the only ending to the sentence that made sense. Mac sat there a moment in silence. Of course Dick could be a father. He was just that guy, the one who slept with anybody and everybody, to hell with the consequences. Of course he would knock up a woman and walk away, either not knowing or not caring what he had done.

Mac swallowed hard but it didn’t work. The bile rose up in her throat way too fast and she was up from the stool and running before Veronica could hardly blink.

Veronica winced as she heard Mac throwing up spectacularly in the nearest bathroom. As much as the booze had caused her to feel that bad, there was no way hearing of Dick’s antics had helped any. There was no way in hell Veronica could ask Mac to play go between on this one. She was just going to have to put her best foot forward and ask Dick for herself what had happened with Lucy. With a little luck he might even remember her last name and then Veronica would stand more chance of finding out what happened the night of the attack. How all this tied to Missy and Adam, she had no idea, but somehow it all had to be connected. These things usually were, no matter how unlikely it seemed.

Heading for the stairs, Veronica ran up, realising at the top that she had no idea which room was Dick’s own. Following the sound of the TV seemed to be a good idea and it didn’t fail her. The door was partially open and through the gap she could see Dick reclining on his bed, his good arm behind his head on the pillows.

“Knock, knock?” she said, pushing the door wider. “Hey Dick. How’re you doing?”

“Ronnie? Wow, you’re maybe the last person I expected to visit... ever!” he declared, using the remote to turn the TV to mute. “What’s up?”

“Not much. Heard you had a birthday yesterday. Belated happy returns,” she told him with a smile as fake as anything ever had been.

“Thanks,” he replied, nodding once. “You see Macky on your way in?” he checked.

“She’s feeling a little sick right now,” Veronica explained, deciding not to elaborate any further than that. “Did you need anything? Your pills or water or whatever?”

“You wanna help me?” he checked, one eyebrow raised.

“Dick, we may not be buds or anything, but even I’m not going to stand here watching you writhe in pain from injuries you sustained in an attack,” she said definitely. “Maybe a few years ago I would’ve, but we’re all adults now, right?”

He looked confused. Veronica was used to that kind of expression from Dick, but this was just a little different to usual. She wondered what he was thinking but quite honestly was too afraid to ask. She waited until he admitted that he could use some water and the bottle of pain meds he was supposed to take first thing in the morning, pointing Veronica towards the print out on the nightstand. She smiled at the sight of a colour coded chart that had to be Mac’s handiwork and wasted no time in getting Dick what he needed. Just as soon as he was done taking his pills, she pressed forward with the matter at hand.

“So, I might just have a lead on the attack. You remember a woman named Lucy? She would have been a conquest of yours around nine months ago?”

“Nine months?” Dick echoed, frowning hard. “Woah, you’re not sayin’...”

“Yep, I’m sayin’,” Veronica confirmed. “There’s a chance you’re a father, Dick. Which from the look on your face, I’m guessing you didn’t know?”

Dick only shook his head and continued to look blown away. Veronica might have felt sorry for him, if he wasn’t such an ass. Besides, if he really had gotten this Lucy pregnant that was his own fault, his responsibility that he was going to have to stand up to. Veronica could only have so much sympathy for Dick. Right now, she felt more sorry for Mac than anybody else.

* * *

Mac didn’t dare leave the bathroom for at least a half hour. Every time she intended to move away from the toilet, her stomach flipped over again and threatened another bout of heaving. Eventually, when she was sure that no amount of retching was going to bring forth anything else, because there was just nothing left to give, Mac washed her hands and face, and finally moved on wobbly legs back to the kitchen.

It took a moment to recall that Veronica had been here and to wonder where she had gone. Mac turned too fast to look towards the stairs, assuming Veronica must be up there with Dick. She barely had time to worry about what was being said when her friend came hurrying down to join her again.

“Hey. How’re you feeling?”

“Better, and worse,” said Mac shakily.

“Yeah, hangovers are fun that way, huh?” said Veronica with a knowing smile. “I talked to Dick about the latest lead. I figured it might be easier than asking you to do it right now.”

“Thanks,” she muttered, swallowing hard. “What did he say?”

“Not much. Confirmed some details, that’s all. The rest is up to my super-sleuthing skills, as always.”

Mac smiled at the way she phrased it, but her insides still felt like they had been through the ringer, and the thought of talking to Dick about anything, least of all the events of last night and/or this morning just made it all worse. Unfortunately, Mac knew she couldn’t even get back to her room without passing by Dick. Besides, he needed her, it was why she was here. Even as Veronica was confirming she had given Dick his pain meds whilst she was up there, he would be looking for breakfast, help to the bathroom, company in general. She couldn’t abandon him now, it wouldn’t be fair.

“Hey, you want me to stay a while?” asked Veronica , her hand at Mac’s shoulder. “I can work from here for a couple of hours whilst you sleep or whatever you need to do?” she offered.

“No, honestly, I’ll be fine,” Mac told her, shaking her head very carefully and yet she still wound up regretting it anyway. “I think I feel better for the... releasing of stuff,” she admitted awkwardly. “The aspirin will kick in and I’ll shower when the room stops moving by itself. I’ll be fine,” she promised, forcing a smile.

“Okay, but you call me if you need anything, you hear me, Q?” said Veronica definitely.

“Understood, Bond.” Mac smiled more genuinely that time, as she went with her friend to the front door.

When Veronica was gone, Mac took a moment to breathe, hands practically holding her head on whilst she got her bearings. Dick needed her, she had just said as much to Veronica, and she would be here for him, as promised. That didn’t mean she was looking forward to whatever conversation came next. It was going to be a very long day.


	17. Chapter 17

Dick was kind of lost in thought since Veronica’s visit. It was so crazy, thinking that he might be a father. Of course there was always a possibility, he knew that. Sex made babies, he listened enough in biology class in high school to know how it all worked, but he was always careful, always sure to double-bag before he went in. It was basic safety precautions, not just so he didn’t have random women getting pregnant with kids he didn’t want, but also so he didn’t catch anything awful. Dick may not be the smartest guy in the world but safe sex was too important not to have your head in the game.

“Hey.”

A small voice by the door barely sounded like Mac but Dick knew it couldn’t be anybody else. He turned to see her hovering there, looking the same as always and yet somehow different. The thought of her lips on his over-rode everything in Dick’s head for a moment, and then his talk with Ronnie came back fast, like a huge wave rising up and washing every other thought out of his mind.

“I’m guessin’ Ronnie told you.”

“About Lucy?” Mac checked. “Yeah, she did.”

She was still on the threshold, not even putting one foot into his room. Dick didn’t know what to do with that. It wasn’t as if Mac didn’t know his rep. She knew damn well that he slept with a whole lot of women and it never mattered before. They didn’t really talk about it much, but she knew. They were friends in spite of that and everything was cool. Now it seemed different, way too different, and Dick didn’t like that at all.

“You okay?” he checked, enquiring more about her health than anything else.

Mac smiled slightly, finding the question too ridiculous for words, and all the answers in her head right now even more so. No, she wasn’t okay, she was so far from okay she could scream, though she knew all that would achieve was making her head hurt all the more.

The hangover was making her feel much less than okay. Knowing she kissed Dick last night and neither of them dare mention it was not okay. Having the information that he might be the father of a baby he seemingly knew nothing about was a mile away from okay with Mac. To explain any of it seemed impossible right now.

“I’ll be fine,” she told him, just because it was the easiest answer it give. “Er, you need anything?”

“Might be cool if you actually came into the room to talk to me,” he replied immediately.

Mac tried not to squirm, took a deep breath and wandered into the bedroom. She hovered by the bed like she was considering sitting down and then changed her mind, heading for the chair on the other side of the bed. Somehow sharing space on the bed with Dick would be too much right now, in more ways than one.

“What gives, Mac?” he asked as she lowered herself into the chair and immediately rubbed her aching forehead. “Yesterday...”

“Yesterday was your birthday, and we had a little too much fun,” she told him perhaps a little too sharply. “At least, I did, so you’re going to have to deal with the fact that I’m not exactly feeling like myself this morning, okay, Dick?”

She was being snappy and it hurt her head as much as it hurt his feelings, Mac was sure. She didn’t even have to look at his face to know he was stung by her words and tone, but the kicked puppy look was still there when she did dare to glance up.

“You’re crabby after you drink,” he said sourly. “Which is weird because you’re a really happy drunk. Friendly too.”

“Dick, don’t,” she told him, getting up fast from the chair and immediately regretting it when the world swam horribly before her eyes. “I just... If you don’t need any help with anything right now, I’m gonna go.”

She made for the door but barely made it half way before he yelled to her.

“Hey, you kissed me, not the other way around!”

Mac stopped in her tracks, taking a very deep breath and letting it out slow. It didn’t really help.

“I know that,” she said, her back still facing him, though she made no further attempt to get out of the door. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry,” he urged her, trying to reach for her sleeve but failing to make it. “Just be you, Macky. Be cool like you were before.”

“I can’t be cool right now!” she told him crossly, turning to face him and once again regretting the swift movement. “Dick, nothing is cool right now, don’t you get that? I made an idiot out of myself last night, I feel like crap this morning, and you... you might be a father, for crying out loud. Doesn’t any of this mean a damn thing to you?!”

The yelling made her throat strain and her head pound horribly, but Mac couldn’t help it. She wanted to laugh and she wanted to cry at the same time, more so the latter if she were honest, though she couldn’t entirely explain why.

This was insane. Dick had a history with women, a big long history with more women than she had probably ever met in her own life. It should be no surprise to Mac that one of these many women might have given birth to Dick’s child, so why it felt like a knife through her heart when she heard it, she couldn’t explain. Shewould love to blame the hangover, too much booze and a moment of stupidity when she threw herself at Dick. It would make life that much easier if Mac had an excuse for all of this, but she didn’t. The only real reason she could come up with for caring this much was just because she really did care this much. It hurt, and was way too much to deal with right now.

“You think I don’t care?” he asked her, looking like he was feeling almost as much pain as Mac right now, though somehow she doubted that were possible. “You think it doesn’t even bother me that I might've got Lucy pregnant? That I might have a kid out there? Well, it does, Mac. It bothers me a lot!” he yelled back at her.

“I’m amazed you remember her name,” she shot back cruelly, not even sure why she was being so mean, so honest maybe.

“Yeah, well, sometimes I don’t,” said Dick harshly. “That’s what you wanna hear, right? That all those things people say about me are true? That I’m this big man-whore that can’t even remember all the chicks he’s banged? Well, yeah, sometimes I don’t remember, and do you know what? Mostly I don't even care.”

Mac turned to walk away, not wanting to hear anymore, but Dick wasn’t letting go until he was done.

“You wanna know why I live my life this way, Mac? Because I’ll tell you. People hear the name Dick Casablancas, and they think, what a dumabass. Well, maybe they’re right, maybe I am dumb. No good in school, no good for anything, except two things - surfing and sex. That’s it, Mac, that is the only two things anybody ever said I was good at, so yeah, I get a damn lot of practice, and I don’t care who knows about it. No matter what you think about me, I don’t lie to women. They sleep with me, they know that’s all it is. Lucy knew it, same as all the rest. I don’t know if I knocked her up, but it is not all my fault if I did!”

Mac knew he had a point, but she also knew she couldn’t stand to have any more of this conversation right now. Her eyes had filled up with tears somewhere in the middle of Dick’s shouted speech, spilling out down her cheeks before she had a chance to even try and stop them. She didn’t want to know this, really didn’t want to hear it, but her feet were stuck to the spot and wouldn’t allow her to leave.

“I don’t expect you to get it, being a brain and all,” he said then, much quieter than the rest of his angry ranting. “But when you’re short on praise, you stick to what you’re good at. Besides, when I drink, and women are all over me, it... it’s not just about feeling like I’m worth something. It blanks out everything else too, all the stuff it hurts too much to think about.”

Mac bit her lip as a sob broke free of her throat. It was horrible to stand here and listen to this, just awful. She was so mad at Dick and for things that she had no right to be angry about, he was right on that. She did understand what he was saying, as much as she didn’t want to. Trying to block out the world, things you didn’t want to think about or deal with, she did that too. Not in the same ways as Dick tried to do it, but it all came back to the same point.

Maybe Mac should’ve told Dick she got it, maybe tried to apologise for being so judgemental, but right now she didn’t have the words. Hurrying from his room to her own, she threw herself face first onto the bed and just gave in to the tears for a while. It was all Mac could think to do for now. Everything else would have to wait until later.

* * *

It was amazing to Veronica that Dick could remember the last name of a woman he slept with nine months ago, but it seemed that maybe Lucy was a little more memorable than some others had been. They spent a whole weekend holed up together in a hotel, for reasons Veronica had insisted she didn’t want to hear about. All she needed was the lovely lady’s last name, and that she now had.

Sitting down in front of her computer, she typed in ‘Lucy Laos’ and hit search. The PI database brought up her name, address, and other such details, a few minor traffic infractions, and that was all. Seemed Lucy wasn’t really a bad girl, just potentially a little slutty, Veronica thought.

Switching to Google, she typed in the name again, followed by Darryl, the name of the other potential father. Immediately an engagement announcement came up in the results and Veronica smiled as she hit the link. It seemed that before the liaison with Dick, Lucy had been due to wed her boyfriend, Darryl Marone. Veronica made a note of that name too, and then went back to the search results. A frown took over her features when she spotted a link to an article about an incident she knew too much about already. The bus crash that had killed a half dozen Neptune High students so many years before, the one Dick’s own brother had caused.

“Betina?” she said, realising the article she was now reading was a tribute from that girls’ brother when she tragically died. “Betina Marone?” she gasped.

It seemed Dick’s potential love rival was none other than his ex-squeeze’s brother. It was quite the tenuous link, especially after all these years, but maybe one more reason to dislike Dick was enough to send Darryl into a violent rage. Certainly sleeping with his fiancee would do it.

“And we have a winner,” said Veronica, writing quickly on her notepad.

Dick Casablancas case, Prime suspect: Darryl Marone.


	18. Chapter 18

It took a while for Mac to pull herself together after the blow out with Dick. Between his overly honest yelling and her already vicious hangover, a shower and breakfast were not going to be a cure all. Thinking over what had happened didn’t help any. Mac could sift through the facts all she wanted, whether they were about last night’s drunken kiss or the fact Dick might be a father, and it didn’t make any of it any easier to unscramble or make her peace with. None of it settled her stomach, that was for sure.

A second round of aspirin after about a gallon of water and some food eventually had Mac feeling like a member of the human race. It also alerted her to the fact that Dick would probably be hungry and needing another dose of meds right about now. No matter what happened with the two of them, she had a job to do here. She was Dick’s primary carer, his only friend for as long as Logan was away. His health came first and everything else had to take a back seat whether Mac wanted to face it or not.

Dick’s words were echoing in her head for the hundredth time as Mac threw together a sandwich and raided the cupboards for something to go with it. She tried her best to get Dick to eat something marginally healthy at least once a day, before they reverted to pizzas and various other take out in the evenings as they kicked each other’s butt at video games or whatever. Pain medication wasn’t the only way to heal a body, not that Dick seemed to care much about veggies or an over-abundance or sugar in his diet.

“You think I don’t care? You think it doesn’t even bother me that I might have a kid out there? Well, it does, Mac. It bothers me a lot!”

She heard the words as clearly now as when he yelled them into her face. Mac hated how right he was, how much she had judged him and so easily. Before it was okay. She could make excuses for treating him badly because that was how he had treated others, herself included. Mac justified her actions and words based on his own and that was fine. Since moving in together, no matter what the reason, Mac and Dick had gotten closer. They had become a kind of friends, though Mac refused to put too much thought into a more precise descriptor up to now. To just assume Dick was an ass, after all the time they had spent together, all she had come to know about him, it was not Mac’s proudest moment and she planned to tell him so.

“When I drink and women are all over me, it... it’s not just about feeling like I’m worth something, it blanks out everything else too. All the stuff it hurts too much to think about.”

That comment had hit Mac like a bullet to the brain. She knew what he meant, she knew exactly. At the moment he spoke those words she should have admitted that Dick might have been speaking for her. Not the drinking and women part of it, but the need to block everything out, to forget. She handled things better these days, after so many years, you had to learn to let go, but she knew what it was to suffer. She understood thinking too much, blaming yourself, rightly or wrongly, wondering too much. The need to get away from that could get pretty severe, especially when there was no-one to turn to, no-one to talk things through with and off-load. Mac had friends and family, but neither her situation with Madison or worse the one with Cassidy were things she could just bring up with anyone and everyone. She had to assume that aside from Logan, Dick felt very alone and isolated, no place to turn to when he was hurting, when he just needed someone to listen and tell him it was okay.

“No matter what you think about me, I don’t lie to women. They sleep with me, they know that’s all it is. Lucy knew it, same as all the rest. I don’t know if I knocked her up, but it is not all my fault if I did.”

Mac stopped at the bottom of the stairs with a tray on her arm as those words ran through her head. Dick had a point. It definitely took two to make a baby, and if this Lucy person had decided to sleep with Dick, presumably without protection, she had to know what she was risking. That didn’t make Mac feel any better about the prospect of Dick being a father. It shouldn’t bother her. It didn’t make sense unless her feelings ran way deeper than friendship. Mac shook her head and forced herself to keep on walking. Now was not a good time for this particular thought process. Everything else was on hold, until she made her apology.

Mac found Dick’s door half way open and the man himself lying on the bed with his head turned away. Whether he was napping or had just heard her coming and didn’t want to see her, Mac couldn’t be sure. With her free hand, she knocked on the open door just to be certain he knew she was there and then came into the bedroom with her tray. She put the food down on the other side of the bed and then got the correct pills from the bottles in the nightstand. If Dick looked at her at all, Mac didn’t know about it, and she tried not to think about it either.

“Here,” she said at last, more because she had to rather than anything else.

She put the pills into Dick’s hand, waited for him to throw them in his mouth and then handed over a bottle of water with the lid already removed. Mac dared to glance at his face as he swallowed down the medicine, taking the bottle away when he pushed it her way. Apparently he wasn’t talking to her, but that was okay. Mac needed her time to speak anyway.

“I had nightmares for months after Cassidy died.”

Dick’s eyes shot up to meet hers the moment she said it and Mac wasn’t surprised. She also wasn’t done yet.

“To start with, I hardly slept at all, and then when I did, nightmares, all of the time. What happened, what might’ve happened... It’s not something I exactly want to recall in vivid detail, but it was bad. So yeah, I understand exactly what you mean about blocking out bad memories and not wanting to deal. I’m the one person on the planet that probably gets it in a way nobody else ever could, because I know what it is to love and to hate the same person at the same time, and not have a damn clue how to ever deal with that.”

Dick wasn’t sure if all the air had gone out of just his body or if in fact the room was devoid of oxygen altogether. Certainly he had no clue how to take a breath right now, never mind form a sentence. He always knew that out of everybody in the world, Mac was the one who ought to understand him best and yet disliked him most. Well, not the most, because Ronnie always had that title, but Mac had to have come a close second for a while there. He gave her some real reasons to hate him, sometimes on purpose because he almost thought it was for the best. Now they were some kind of friends and still he had not expected her to walk in here and make this kind of confession.

“I’m sorry I yelled before,” he admitted at last, the only thing that seemed right to say in such a moment.

The blank mask of something akin to pain and anger combined melted slowly off Mac’s face. A hint of a smile came through and Dick was more than a little relieved to see it.

“I’m sorry too,” she assured him. “I had no right accusing you and getting mad. That was stupid.”

“It’s cool.” Dick nodded, returning the half smile she had found for him.

The air came back into the room and passed through them both in a joint sigh of relief. Things were not solved here, not anywhere close to perfect. Dick might still be a father. Mac might still be feeling a little more for the guy than she was okay with. The point was, they were back to being friends and the world was spinning in the right direction on its axis. Call it a win for now.

“Um, you need anything else?” asked Mac, hands in her back pockets as she floundered some for normal conversation. “Help to the bathroom or whatever?”

“Yeah, probably a good idea,” said Dick, shifting off the bed.

Mac moved on automatic to help him, putting everything else out of her head as she concentrated on the task at hand. She got Dick to the bathroom and then came back to the bed, straightening the comforter and tidying the video game boxes by the TV just for something else to do. A few minutes later, she got Dick back to his bed and was about to leave him to his lunch when he spoke again.

“At least you treated him right.”

Mac didn’t have to ask who he was talking about or what he meant. This was a continuation of what they had been talking about ten minutes before, as if no time had passed at all. It wasn’t a conversation she wanted to have in a lot of ways, and yet in others, she couldn’t wait. It might just be cathartic.

“Not always,” she said, turning back to look at Dick picking at his sandwich. “And, y’know, what happened... None of it was our fault.”

“Doesn’t make me feel any better. If I was a better brother...” his voice trailed away and he shook his head.

“If I was a better girlfriend, if your mom and dad had been better parents, if Woody Goodman hadn’t been a pervert,” Mac reeled off as she came to perch on the other side of the bed. “There are a hundred factors, Dick. You know there always is with stuff like that.”

“I know,” he agreed. “I knew before the therapist told me, before Logan said it,” he said, rubbing his forehead as if it ached. “Knowing stuff and accepting it are two different things though, right?”

“Oh yeah,” Mac agreed, pulling her legs up onto the bed and making herself more comfortable. “After what happened, I was kind of a mess. I couldn’t look at guys in the same way. I felt like they were all looking at me, that they... they had plans for me. It was irrational, a part of me knew that, but it freaked me out for a long time.”

“You think you’re over it now?” asked Dick, looking genuinely curious.

Mac shrugged. “As much as I can be. Cassidy was a part of my life and I can’t change that. I can’t change that I loved him or that I hated him. I can’t go back and make it different, but I don’t have to let it ruin the rest of my life. Comes a point you have to draw a line and say, that’s it. I’m not running my life around this crap anymore. You have to learn to live again.”

Dick nodded, either in agreement or understanding, maybe a little of both. Since he didn’t say a word, Mac couldn’t really be sure.

“Honestly? I started with the whole acting out and chasing chicks thing because... because it was a way to get attention,” he admitted eventually. “Beav was the smart one, I had to be the funny one, the sexy one,” he said with a smirk he couldn’t help. “Anything so that somebody noticed.”

“You were pretty hard to ignore in high school,” Mac agreed, nodding her head. “Did it really help? Being adored by the 09ers and all?”

Dick shrugged. “Didn’t hurt. Still, wasn’t exactly what I wanted. Wasn’t the same as having somebody who really gave a crap. Y’know I only ragged on you and Beav so hard because... I don’t know, because I wanted what you guys had, in this weird twisted way. You always looked so freakin' happy.”

“Well, we were, I guess,” said Mac, awkwardly looking away. “Now the happy memories are all twisted up with the bad ones.”

“I get that.” Dick nodded. “I get nightmares too, but then you know that,” he recalled.

“Yeah,” Mac admitted.

It was good to say it all out loud and have somebody understand, but before too long they were both done with a topic that was still very awkward, too much to keep on dragging up unecessarily. Mac was right about needing to draw a line and move on. Dick felt a little bit like a weight was coming off his shoulders as he spoke to her about all of this. She was the first person he felt truly understood where he was coming from, and that was amazing. He was startled when she suddenly got up and went for the door.

“Mac...?” he called after her.

She was smiling when she turned around.

“Relax, dude, I’m just going to grab my lunch,” she told him. “I’ll be right back.”

“Cool,” he told her, smiling just the same.

* * *

There was no logical connection. Veronica had spent hours on internet searches and background checks only to come up with a big fat zero. She was absolutely certain that Darryl Marone was the most likely candidate for Dick’s attack. He had plenty of motives and from the pictures Veronica had dug up, he sure had the size and stature to make a mess of a semi-drunk Dick. The problem was, Veronica was almost certain that Missy Stone and her room-mate, Adam Durant, were the culprits when it came to the knock out juice involved in the crime. The big problem now was tying all the leads together, and that Veronica was failing to do.

Darryl, much like his younger sister, Betina, had attended Neptune High, but Missy Stone was never a student there, having attended Pan instead. Adam seemed to be a newer addition to Neptune altogether, having graduated from a school two counties over before enrolling at Hearst a couple of years back.

Family ties was the next check, but Veronica was coming up empty there too. Even mutual friends seemed to be a bust. There was a chance that Darryl, and potentially Lucy, liked to party at the 09er where Missy worked, but that didn’t exactly make them buddies or likely to want to commit a crime together. Certainly, Veronica didn’t have any motive on Missy or Adam’s side either.

Her hand went to her head that ached considerably. The one thing Veronica Mars hated most about the crime solving basis was when the crimes just refused to be solved no matter what! Dick Casablancas’ attack was such a case and what made it worse was that she was spending all this time on it for no pay at all. Veronica knew damn well that was heartless, but it was also true. She couldn’t afford to spend too much time on this when she had paying clients to attend to, and yet she felt compelled to do it. For Mac and for Logan. For Dick too, actually.

Veronica yawned and sat up straight in her chair again. One more revision of the facts before she called it a night. She doubted it'd do any good, but she had to try.


	19. Chapter 19

“I wish I could make sense of it, but it doesn’t make any kind of actual sense,” Veronica explained to Logan via the Skype feed, rubbing her forehead that ached with the strain of the day. “You know what Dick is like, I can understand a whole bunch of people wanting to pop him in the mouth for something dumb he said or for inciting some woman to cheat on her boyfriend or husband, but a person needs a real motive for something like this. It was well planned, well executed, and just nasty. I can imagine Darryl Marone being the guy but it doesn’t connect back to Missy and Adam.”

“I wish I could help,” her boyfriend said with a sigh. “I really don’t know any of these people any more than Dick does. I see your point about Betina’s brother but-”

The picture froze and jolted, making Logan appear to stutter terribly before finally coming back to life. He frowned into the camera lens as if unsure what happened or if he could now be seen or heard.

“You’re back,” said Veronica with a smile she meant and a yawn she had hoped to conceal but failed.

“You’re exhausted,” remarked Logan with a smile of his own. “I can see the bags under your eyes from here, beautiful.”

“Gee, you say the sweetest things, hon,” she joked, “but yeah, I guess I’m a little tired. Lot going on here, and I always sleep better with your company anyway,” she told him honestly. “I know, I know, you need to be where you need to be, and I couldn’t be more proud.”

“You know I’m proud of you too, right? And that I worry about you just as much as you worry about me. Maybe more.”

“Impossible,” she told him like a reflex. “Still, I won’t be sorry when you’re home again, Fly Boy.”

“Might be sooner than you think,” said Logan with a smirk she knew well.

Veronica smiled because she just couldn’t help herself, but the expression didn’t last long. “Don’t tease,” she urged him, knowing it would only hurt more to have her hopes built up and then dashed.

“I wouldn’t do that to you,” he promised. “Y’know you’re not the only one who knows how to pull strings, Miss Mars.”

Another yawn overtook Veronica’s face, totally ruining the genuine smile that was meant to be there. Logan didn’t mind, he never did.

“Go and sleep, crazy woman,” he urged her.

“I don’t want to waste a second when I could be talking to you,” she protested. “You have no idea how much I miss you right now.”

“I miss you too, and I love you,” he promised. “But I have to go anyway. Sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry, just be safe,” she told him. “I love you.”

Veronica wasn’t one for saying the words all of the time, but it felt so necessary when they parted ways after one of their Skype chats. She hated to think it, but it was always there in the back of Veronica’s mind that maybe this was the last time she would see Logan alive. It helped her understand a little better the fears he always had for her in her dangerous job. It felt like some kind of revenge on her, even though she knew Logan had not and would not base his career on such a thing.

The connection was soon severed, and Veronica let another yawn take her over. She really needed sleep. It was stupid o’clock already and she had a busy day ahead tomorrow. Somehow she doubted any sleep she got would be peaceful. It almost never was after talking to Logan as her head became full of worries and concerns, as well as dreams of when he came home. She really hoped he meant it when he said it would be soon.

* * *

They had talked for hours. Mac wasn’t sure she had ever spent that much time alone with a guy doing nothing but talking. Some of what she and Dick had discussed was serious, but more was just pointless stories that were easy to tell and nice to hear. Mac talked about her childhood some, what it was like growing up Mackenzie. She wondered here and there about how things might have been different as a Sinclair, something she really wasn’t able to speak about to anybody else. Dick didn’t act like he thought she was crazy or anything, he just listened, and he smiled in that way that she still wasn’t quite accustomed to. Maybe that wasn’t it, maybe it was just the feelings it evoked in her she wasn’t really used to yet. It was so strange and examining it bothered her too much to dare.

Dick told his own tales. Some contained his brother, but even those were happy in their own way. Mac figured it was easier for him to talk to her than most other people too. It gave him licence to be honest, which he was. Brutally sometimes, but that was okay. They let the moments come and go, pass over them like water over stones. It was strangely cathartic. Mac could even deal with hearing one or two stories that contained Madison’s name in passing. She knew Dick meant no harm and it was hardly his fault that he dated the woman who had been raised by Mac’s biological parents. It really was a twisted mess they lived in, and so strange that more than one tie seemed determined to bind them together.

They took bathroom breaks, food breaks, but the games consoles went untouched and the TV just the same. They just kept talking, about anything and everything. The hours went by so fast, the time only marked by Dick’s painful reminders that it was time for painkillers and such. It was dark before they realised where they were and Mac noted that she was yawning more often than she wasn’t. Even then it was tempting to stay, to fall asleep just as she was now, stretched out next to Dick on his bed.

It was a bad plan. Mac knew it and was pretty sure Dick did too, no matter how dumb he often seemed. They had literally slept together once before and it had ended in confusion and awkwardness. Given how far they had come today, it would be a shame to spoil it just because Mac was too lazy to haul ass back to her own room, just a few feet down the hall.

Mac tidied around Dick and helped him get under the covers to sleep. There was a tempting moment when she almost kissed him goodnight but thought better of it at the last. If she wasn’t so smart, Mac would have sworn he looked disappointed when she backed off and left him alone. That would be crazy and she knew it. Dick wasn’t attracted to her, not that way. They were friends now, there was no use denying it, but nothing more, because that would be just ridiculous. That was what Mac told herself, over and over, for hours before sleep finally claimed her.

In his own room, Dick had similar trouble in dropping off to sleep, despite how tired he had felt before. It was strange that he had been more comfortable with Mac in the room than out of it. He had the oddest feeling that if she had stayed he might have rested more easily. That made no sense to Dick Casablancas, who never shared a bed with a woman for the purposes of sleep alone. Mac was so different to any other woman in his life before. He wished he could explain it, but he couldn’t, not at all.

* * *

Social media. It was a wonderful invention in a lot of ways. Find a long lost friend or missing family member. Keep in touch with all your buds from high school or those that had moved away from town. For Veronica, the dawn of Facebook, Twitter, and the like had its way of making her job much easier and much tougher at the same time. With cheating partners often proved to be just that thanks to posts they never should have made, Veronica didn’t get quite as many clients in that area as she used to. On the other hand, she could dig up all kinds of dirt on social media that would have been perhaps impossible to find by other channels. Some folks got very sloppy about their privacy settings, and posting drunk was always dangerous. Veronica found social media to be a goldmine of useful information sometimes. Other times, she got more confused than anything else.

Extensive Googling had led her to a couple of accounts that seemed to belong to Lucy Laos. Those that used her real name for Facebook and such were easy to find, but the trick was often to get into the more obscure places. The Tumblr or Twitter accounts that were hidden behind cleverly disguised pseudonyms and fandom-based screen-names. Thankfully, a presumably careless message that probably should’ve been private but wasn’t led Veronica from Lucy’s Facebook to a Tumblr account that hadn’t been used for the past six months. When it was, the content seemed to be mostly relogged gifs of a half-naked Zac Efron, entirely naked Chris Evans, and other similar things that Veronica couldn’t say she really objected to seeing. Somewhere in the middle of all of this she made an interesting discovery.

A slew of posts were not reblogs but written by Lucy herself, under her screen-name of ‘hodbodlover09’. They were nothing short of nasty as she made comments about ‘that bitch’ who seemed to have caused her pain. It read as if Lucy’s other half, Darryl, had cheated with said bitch, and Lucy was full of bile towards the mystery woman. The only clue as to her identity seemed to be a picture of a woman from a movie that Veronica vaguely recognised. Devil horns and such had been badly Photoshopped, or rather added in Paint, by an amateur, but there was no doubting she was a place-holder for whoever Darryl cheated with.

“The vampire slayer,” Veronica muttered as she stared at the picture, knowing this wasn’t the famous Buffy but her one-time sister-in-arms Faith Lehane she was looking at.

Frowning, Veronica flipped open a new tab on her web browser and typed in the web address for IMDb. The only other thing she ever saw this actress in was a peppy cheerleading flick back when she and Lily were young enough to think it was fun to watch. Finding ‘Bring It On’ in the list of acting credits, Veronica smiled. Eliza Dushku had played ‘Missy Pantone’ in the movie. Lucy hated Missy, who must have cheated with Darryl. How Dick fitted into all this, she couldn’t exactly say, but at least now she had a connection!

* * *

A new day dawned, and Mac woke up smiling. If nothing else had been achieved yesterday, she and Dick now knew where they stood with each other. There was pretty much nothing they couldn’t say to each other and they were most definitely friends in the truest sense of the word. Mac sure never expected that to happen when she moved in here, but now that it had, she couldn’t really be sorry about it.

Things would be fine, if Dick was feeling the same. Unfortunately, as much as he was sure on he and Mac being buds now, he wasn’t exactly clear on one other point. Two nights ago, on the day of his birthday, Mac had kissed him. He still didn’t know what to do with that, and for all the things they had talked over yesterday, which was a lot, that particular moment had never come up. They mentioned it only once, in a yelling match that he never wanted to repeat, not with Mac, it was too painful. They got onto the whole deal of him maybe being a father and all. Dick hadn’t the capacity to think about that right now. He wanted to deal with Mac and that kiss first.

It was early yet, at least for Dick, but he was awake and figured he may as well be up and moving. Levering himself from the bed wasn’t easy, but he made it and hopped all the way to the bathroom, using his good arm to steady himself on the night stand, the chair, the balcony doors, the wall, and so on. He used the facilities, and then started the journey back, making it to the bed just as Mac walked in. Whether she was coming his way anyway or just heard the noise he made in moving, Dick couldn’t be sure. Still, he was grinning as she looked his way.

“Check me out!” he said like a proud child. “Bathroom breaked all by myself.”

“Wow,” she replied, smiling also. “Colour me impressed. You work up an appetite for breakfast with all that movement?”

“You betcha,” he told her, slowly nodding his head. “Wow, when you don’t move much, just that much really takes it outta ya.”

“I’ll bet,” Mac sympathised. “Well, soon you’ll be all healed up and moving will become second nature again,” she promised. “I’ll go get some food together.”

She turned to leave and looked genuinely startled when he called her name to stop her. Looking back over her shoulder, she was mostly expecting a specific request for breakfast. Mac was definitely not ready for what Dick actually said.

“Are we ever gonna talk about that kiss?”

Opening her mouth to speak, Mac closed it again just as fast. Realising after doing this three times that she must look like a landed fish, she stopped. Dick wanted to talk and she owed it to him to agree. It was the one thing they hadn’t covered yesterday and she supposed she should give an explanation. The real problem was, she didn’t have one, at least not one she was willing to delve into.

“What do we need to say?” she asked, still hovering in the doorway.

Dick shrugged, manoeuvered himself so he was sitting more than lying down. “I don’t know, I guess... Well, I kinda wondered why?” he asked at last. “I mean, me, I get drunk, I kiss chicks. Kind of a thing with me, you know that,” he admitted, looking half ashamed of his behaviour all of a sudden. “But you, you’re Mac. All sensible and... and, like, definite about what you do, especially with guys. So drunk or not, when you kissed me, you had a reason, right?”

Mac couldn’t deny he was right. After all she had told Dick the past few weeks, and most especially yesterday in their talk to end all talks, he knew she wasn’t the type to go randomly putting the moves on guys like that. She had a reason for kissing him, she was certain on that, she just really didn’t know how to put it into words without making a fool out of herself.

“Dick...” she began awkwardly, turning to face him properly, fingers intertwining and letting go more than once as she thought about the words she had to say. “Um, the truth is, I had a lot to drink and... well, you’re not exactly lacking in the looks department,” she told him, knowing full well he already knew that. “We get along, we’re friends and all. I was in a good mood and it was... it was an impulse, I guess,” she admitted at last, one hand running back through her short hair. “I didn’t think it through a whole lot, but in the moment, it was what I wanted to do, so I did. Okay?”

There was too long a pause after she finished talking. It felt like a half hour to Mac as she stood there waiting for Dick’s response, her feet apparently glued to the spot and her eyes wandering everywhere even as she felt his gaze burning into her face. When she finally dared to glance his way, Mac found Dick smiling.

“Okay,” he agreed, nodding his head. “Hey, even geeks are allowed to have drunken impulses, I guess.”

She laughed a little at the phrasing he used though even Mac wasn’t sure why. She never did take the words ‘geek’ or ‘nerd’ as an insult, especially not these days when they had become that much cooler than they used to be. From Dick, it was just funny to hear, so much like a high school insult and yet he said it with the friendliest of smiles.

“I don’t want to complicate things, Dick,” she told him then, unsure why she was making things serious again just when they weren’t, but somehow Mac felt compelled to get this out there. “We like each other, we’re friends, and it works. In the circumstances, the less complications, the better, right?”

“Right,” he agreed, nodding once, smile fading some.

Mac turned and left then, muttering about breakfast. She didn’t want to cause pain, not to Dick or to herself, but the truth was, getting into anything serious with him would be dumb on a good day. This was the day after they found out Dick might be the father of a newborn, and that the mother’s ex may have been the one to kick the crap out of Dick not so long ago. It was way too messed up to add in the potential of romance. Mac wondered if it would ever be simpler, and unfortunately, she doubted it somehow.


	20. Chapter 20

“You’re getting really good at that.”

Mac was smiling when she said it, in spite of the fact it made her a little sad to see Dick coping without her. That was so wrong and she knew it. Dick getting better was a good thing, but Mac was acutely aware that time was passing by and soon he really wouldn’t need her at all. It was strange to realise how much that stung.

“Yeah.” He sighed as he rejoined her on the bed, landing a little too heavily. “I’m so proud that I can go to the bathroom by myself. I feel like a four year old,” he muttered, reclaiming his X-Box controller.

“Well, you’re a very clever boy,” said Mac, in full on over-the-top proud Mama voice as she ruffled the front of his hair and laughed.

“Now I feel like a dog who fetched a stick,” complained Dick, knocking her hand away and fixing his hair.

“Some people are never happy,” Mac told him, rolling her eyes and then fixing them back on the screen. “C’mon, I’m waiting to kick your butt some more.”

“In your dreams, Macky,” Dick declared, selecting the options to start a new game. “Prepare to be destroyed.”

“You are all talk, Casablancas.”

Mac couldn’t keep the grin off her face even as they issued threats to each other and started kicking the crap out of their opposing characters on the screen. This was fun, maybe the most fun she had in a very long time. In a little over a month, she and Dick had become really close friends. They could literally talk about anything at this point, and they had the best time just hanging out together, playing video games and eating pizza like pros.

“How does a chick eat like you do and still look so hot?” Dick had asked at one point.

Mac had tried her darndest not to blush at the strange compliment and was pretty sure she failed miserably to keep the heat out of her cheeks. She mumbled something about a lucky metabolism and changed the subject fast, but quite honestly, Mac didn’t mind being told she was attractive. It had been a while, she had to admit, and coming from Dick it was quite the compliment. The guy was a hottie in his own right, and she had always known that, no matter how much of an ass he could be when he put his mind to it.

“Yeah! That’s how it’s done!” declared Dick now, knocking Mac’s character to the ground and keeping it there with a little too much ease.

Mac glanced sideways to see how he had pulled off that last combo. She was surprised to find his injured arm out of the sling for one thing.

“Hey, able-bodied dude!” she declared, sitting up and staring at him until she had his attention. “What’s this about?” she asked, gesturing to his injured arm.

“Oh yeah,” he said, as if only just noticing himself what he had done. “I needed my arm the other day and I wondered if I could use it, so I gave it a try. Totally doesn’t hurt or anything. I mean, I don’t exactly have all the movement with the cast and everything, but it’s definitely better than it was.”

“That’s... cool,” said Mac eventually, finding a smile. “You really are getting better. Won’t need me for much longer.”

She moved to get off the bed, checking her watch as if she might be late for something. It was Sunday and she was going nowhere, they both knew that, but even in their comfortable bubble of friendship, things could get awkward occasionally.

“I’m still not doing that great,” Dick told her. “I mean, er... Like, there’s a whole bunch of stuff I can’t do for myself yet. Don’t even get me started on the stairs, 'cause that's just not gonna happen!”

Mac turned to glance at him and wondered at the look on his face. He looked as freaked out by her leaving as she felt. They really had gotten close and yet never really discussed it as such. It was the one topic they still skirted around. Almost a week on from their big talk about everything else, she never had fully explained her feelings for him, or pressed him to say anything about what he might feel for her. They had agreed they were friends and to leave it at that. Until more evidence came out regarding Dick’s attack, and moreover his potential status as the father of Lucy Laos’ baby, it seemed safer this way, but it was awkward as hell sometimes.

A phone ringing made them both jump, breaking a moment that neither Mac nor Dick had really been ready for. It was her cell in her back pocket. She reached for it, saw Veronica’s name on the screen and left the room in a hurry whilst accepting the call.

“Hey, V,” she greeted her, headed to her own room.

“Hey, Mac. Sorry to call you with work on a Sunday, but... Well, I figured it’s not exactly work for you since it concerns Dick’s case.”

Mac pushed the door to her room almost closed and sat down heavily on her own bed, transferring her phone to the other hand and firing up her computer with her right.

“You have news on that?”

“I had news a few days ago, sort of anyway,” Veronica explained. “Nothing was concrete and if I’m honest I had a bunch of other important money-earning cases to deal with in between. I hate to say I put Dick on the back-burner but...”

“You have to eat, Veronica, I get it,” said Mac in understanding. “And hey, you’re using your day of rest to help out with this so I think you’ll be forgiven in the end.”

An almost painful laugh escaped Veronica’s lips and Mac could just imagine the twisted smile that went with it. She paid rapt attention then as her friend divulged her latest information, the posts she had found on social media that seemed to indicate some kind of rift between Lucy Laos and Missy Stone, the potential for an affair between Missy and Darryl.

“It’s like it makes sense but it doesn’t,” said Veronica. “All the major players are connected, but in no way that really adds up to Dick getting knocked out and beat up in an alley.”

“So what’s next?” asked Mac, not caring for anything but a way forward, a way to help solve a case that had been hanging around too long.

“My Googling mojo and the PI database only gets me so far,” Veronica explained. “I found Facebook accounts for our major players-”

“But they have pretty smart privacy settings,” Mac interrupted, sure she had said almost exactly what her friend was going to.

“Think you can crack the code, Q?”

“You got it, Bond.”

The details were sent through in moments and Mac got to work on hacking the crap out of Facebook. She almost forgot that she had left Dick alone without any real explanation, but he had to have heard her saying hello to Veronica, so he probably wouldn’t wonder on her absence for quite a while.

“Let me know if you find anything,” said Veronica in Mac’s ear. “But don’t be surprised if my cell is off for a while later today. I’m gonna see if I can’t shake a little info out of our chemistry major, Adam Durant.”

“He doesn’t have Facebook?” asked Mac, even as she held the cell under chin and typed frantically on her laptop with both hands.

“Not that I could find, but feel free to double check,” her friend told her. “Er, how’re things anyway? With Dick, I mean.”

“He’s doing better. We have another hospital appointment tomorrow, but-”

“You know that’s not what I meant.”

The moment Veronica interrupted with those words, Mac stopped typing. She knew just exacly what she really meant, it was just easier not to acknowledge it. A part of Mac actually thought she would get away with not talking about her non-relationship with Dick, but clearly not.

“We’re okay,” she said cryptically. “Better than before,” she admitted at length.

“Good,” said Veronica. “That’s good.”

It was all a little ambiguous but it was the best either of them could do right now.

* * *

It wasn’t so weird for college students to have part-time jobs around Neptune. Some tended bar, others pumped gas. Adam Durant worked at the electrical store on main street whenever he wasn’t busy studying his ass off at Hearst, this Veronica knew thanks to a little digging into his life. It was why she was here, about to enter said electrical store in her guise as Missy’s friend, Sandy, hoping that her cover hadn’t been blown yet and still wouldn’t be.

The whole thing was pretty easy for an expert like Veronica. She walked in like she meant to be a customer, tried not to glance around too much and make a big deal about seeking out Adam, but working her way towards him just the same. He was price checking in the next aisle over and Veronica manoeuvred herself over there with ease, looking around at the shelving as if searching out just the right item. She accidentally on purpose bumped her shoulder against his as she passed by and got his attention.

“Hey, Adam, right?” she said with a winning smile. “Missy’s room-mate?”

“Yeah,” he replied, nodding once, clearly searching his memory for her name. “Sandy?”

“That’s right,” she told him with apparent joy that he recalled. “Wow, fancy running into you here.”

Adam shrugged. “Gotta pay the bills somehow,” he said, showing her he was wearing the company shirt and the traditional ‘Hi, my name is...’ badge.

“I hear ya.” Veronica nodded in understanding that was her own rather than purely belonging to Sandy. “So I was looking for something for a friend of mine, she had a baby recently.”

Adam frowned. “And you thought an electrical goods store was the place to buy a gift for a newborn?”

“No, no.” Sandy laughed, her hand pushing his shoulder in that girlish way that guys usually just ate up. “I mean, everybody buys for the baby. I wanted to get something for Lucy, something like a massager or one of those facial spa things. Something to help her feel more like a person, y’know?”

“Sure.” Adam nodded that he understood, gesturing for Sandy to follow him as he moved through the aisles. “Hey, your friend isn’t Lucy Laos, is she?”

“Yeah. You know her?”

Veronica tried to hide her smile because this was exactly the direction she had wanted the conversation to take.

“Not directly,” said Adam. “I know she’s no friend of Missy’s.”

“Oh yeah, those two really don’t get along these days. I’m guessing she told you?”

Veronica deliberately didn’t tell all, not that she knew all for sure. The point was she wanted to see what Adam knew, and what he was willing to share. Apparently, it was quite a lot.

“About Darryl?” he said with a smirk she could hear before he ever turned to face her again. “She didn’t so much tell me as I stumbled upon them. Kind of a mess, but hey, no offence, but your pal Lucy is no better.”

“I’m the last one to defend her.” Sandy shook her head, hands raised in mock surrender. “I’m not exactly judging, but I personally think a woman should at least know who the father is when she finds herself pregnant. Darryl was really upset from what I hear. I can’t blame him for going after that Casablancas guy the way he did.”

That part she dropped in very deliberately, eyes on the massager she was now picking up from the shelf, pretending to avidly read the back of the box.

“You know for sure he did that?” asked Adam.

“C’mon, it wasn’t hard to figure,” said Sandy, looking left and right down the aisle, before stepping in closer to her ‘friend’. “I mean, it’s all speculation, and I wouldn’t say a word to the Sheriff or anything, but it had to be him.”

There was a moment when Veronica really wasn’t sure where this conversation was going to go. What she wanted, actually, what she needed, was for Adam to be proud of his part in the crime and admit it all. The problem was, she was banking on his pride being more important to him than keeping a dangerous secret. He was a male at the age of twenty one, so Veronica thought she was playing a pretty safe bet.

“Not just him,” said Adam in a low voice, as wary as she was that somebody might be listening in. “Since we’re buds and all, and I’m pretty sure you can keep a secret, Darryl did not act alone,” he admitted freely. “Missy really had a chip on her shoulder when it came to Dick Casablancas. Seems he was willing to sleep his way through the entire 09er, staff and clientele alike, but he never touched Missy. Man, did she ever want him to. So she’s mad at him for wanting everyone but her and Darryl’s pissed at Lucy for sleeping with the same guy. They get their revenge sex on, and the next thing you know Lucy announces she’s pregnant. Before long, Darryl and Missy are hatching their plan to beat the living crap out of the rich dude.”

“Wow!” said Sandy, her eyes wide as anything. “I can’t believe Missy didn’t tell me she was involved. Though I can’t imagine she was there throwing punches, was she?”

“Nah,” said Adam, literally waved away such a nonsensical idea, “but she had a trick up her sleeve. My trick,” he told her with a proud smile, tapping an index finger into his own chest. “I made her this stuff, it’s like a cross between Mace and GHB. You put it in a spray bottle. One shot to the face and it’s goodnight, sailor. After that, it’s a pretty easy beat-down.”

Veronica swallowed hard and painted an impressed looking smile on Sandy’s face.

“I’ll bet,” she said, even as bile rose in her throat.

Sure, she was proud to catch the bad guys, but sometimes she really hated having to stand there and play nice with them. These animals did a horrible thing, even if it was to a guy that had led far from a pure life. It was not okay.

“So, the massager is on sale,” said Adam then, getting right into his sales pitch within a minute, “but if you’re set on the facial thing...”

Sandy smiled as if she was listening and thrilled to have his help, but Veronica was thinking about the recording device in her pocket and the breakthrough she just made. If she could just get out of here with the cheapest ‘gift’ possible, without seeing anyone who knew her true identity, she was home free, and the assholes that beat on Dick were going down.


	21. Chapter 21

_“Missy really had a chip on her shoulder when it came to Dick Casablancas. Seems he was willing to sleep his way through the entire 09er, staff and clientele alike, but he never touched Missy. Man, did she ever want him to. So she’s mad at him for wanting everyone but her and Darryl’s pissed at Lucy for sleeping with the same guy. They get their revenge sex on, and the next thing you know Lucy announces she’s pregnant. Before long, Darryl and Missy are hatching their plan to beat the living crap out of the rich dude.”_

Keith clicked off the recording with a look of distaste. He slowly shook his head and looked across at Veronica who was making a face just the same. It was never fun hearing people confess to crimes or just explaining how something went down, not with that much glee in their voice. It was enough to make people like the Mars family want to throw up.

“This kid is something else,” said Keith with a look. “A little too quick to talk too. I’m glad he’s no friend of mine,” he said, dumping the recorder on the table.

“He’s not just a fan of screwing over his friends,” said Veronica, looking thoughtfully at the voice recorder herself. “The very next thing out of his mouth is his own confession.”

She picked up the recorder and clicked play again, so Keith could hear Adam admitting to concocting the substance that knocked out Dick Casablancas, making it that much easier for Darryl and Missy to exact their revenge. Again her father winced. Years in law enforcement ought to have made him immune to this stuff but it never entirely desensitised a person.

Veronica herself had seen friends and acquaintances killed right in front of her, but hearing people talk so joyfully about hurting others still made her feel queasy. Nobody should take that much pleasure in the pain of others, even if the person in question was less than righteous. Dick Casablancas was a lot of unpleasant things, and Veronica had more reasons than most to be pissed at him for the past, but he hadn’t deserved those injuries he got at the hands of Darryl Marone.

“Technically speaking, he didn’t even steal another man’s girlfriend,” she said of Dick when the recording of Adam ended. “Lucy and Darryl were broken up when she slept with Dick, and Darryl didn’t care at all until he found out there was a pregnancy.”

Keith’s hand ran over his face as he considered what he had heard and what it meant. Veronica was pretty sure that wasn’t all he was thinking of. Once upon a time, she had been the baby whose paternity was in question after Lianne’s affair with Jake Kane was revealed. It was why these kind of stories and cases were always a sore point in the Mars household.

“Hey, Pops?” she prompted, tapping his arm and smiling when he met her eyes. “You okay?”

Keith knew what she was asking, and why she had referred to him in such a way.

“I’m fine,” he promised, a hand over hers on the table. “And you did good getting the confession, honey, but I don’t know what good it really does for the Casablancas kid.”

Veronica smiled a little at the way her father continued to refer to both her and those she knew in high school as ‘kids’ even now they were all plenty grown. A ten year high school reunion ought to have proven that, and yet.

“The audio isn’t all we have,” she told him. “There’s some circumstantial stuff from the internet, and I have that device Missy used to knock out Dick. Still, tying it all together and making it stick? It wouldn’t be easy.”

“And that’s assuming you can even get the sheriff to take you seriously.”

“The chances of which are next to zero,” said Veronica. She sighed, rubbing her aching forehead with her free hand. “Even if I could get Darryl and Missy arrested, they could talk their way out of this. Best case, they pin the whole thing on Adam, which wouldn’t be hard with this confession,” she noted, looking at the recorder on the table. “He did wrong, but I don’t want to see the guy go down for the whole crime. His part was more stupid than it was anything else.”

“Veronica.” Keith shook his head. “But for the fact Adam Durante made that stuff, there’s a good chance Darryl Marone wouldn’t have gotten the chance to do as much damage to Dick Casablancas as he did, or at the very least Dick would be able to identify his assailant and have the law deal with him immediately.”

“I know,” she agreed, “but I’m still not okay with Durante taking the fall for everybody. I was hoping Mac could find something incriminating on the private side of social media but nada. I’m just not convinced we have enough to take down Darryl and Missy too.”

Keith sighed. He saw her point. All three people involved in this crime should be punished, there was no point in doing this half way. Even if Adam would squeal on the other two, there was so little real hard evidence of what happened, especially with Dick still remembering nothing concrete about the incident. He might never be able to recall anything more than he knew now, and that was practically nothing.

“I guess the only thing you can do is go to the victim with what you have and let him choose how to deal with the perps?” said Keith eventually.

“I guess so,” his daughter agreed, “but it’ll wait for now. It’s late, and tomorrow Mac has to take Dick back to the hospital. They have enough going on, and a couple of days isn’t going to make any difference.”

She was yawning before she had hardly finished speaking. Keith eased himself up from the stool with no little amount of aches and pains still. He moved around the counter and pulled his daughter close, kissing her temple.

“You did good, kid,” he promised her. “I’m gonna turn in. Don’t be too long before you do the same, okay?”

“Sure thing, Dad,” she said, nodding her head.

When he was gone, Veronica let out a huge sigh, eyes fixed on the recorder in her hand again now. She wanted Dick to know what happened to him. For all that he was, he deserved that much. Mac would want to know too. Those two sure had gotten close the past month and more. Thinking about it, Veronica was pretty sure Mac had said this was probably going to be the last check up, because it was six weeks since the attack and Dick was probably going to be found to be healed. He was moving around more easily, feeling better.

Mac sounded almost sad when she talked about Dick not needing her much longer. Veronica supposed she could understand that. It was nice to be wanted, and perhaps even more so to be needed sometimes. Dick Casablancas was never a guy that Veronica could imagine liking much, though she tried at times for Logan’s sake. He was better these days, mostly since the attack. It was like maturity finally caught up to him, like coming that close to losing everything made him re-evaluate life in a new way. Some of it had to be Mac’s influence too, Veronica was sure on that.

Another yawn overtook her, and for once Veronica decided to take her father’s advice about getting to bed at a decent hour. Tired as she was, sleep should come pretty easily, and dreams usually conjured up Logan’s face. If only every dream ended happily ever after, she might not mind so much

* * *

“Well, I am happy to say that you’ve made excellent progress, Richard,” said the doctor when he got done looking Dick over.

The binding had been taken off his ribs and the bones deemed to be healed. Dick had no pain in his chest or abdomen anymore and his breathing was normal. He admitted that he had started to try and put a little weight on his ankle and it hadn’t been bothering him as much. The doctor discussed it with both him and Mac and eventually decided that he could probably cope without having it strapped around the house, but if he went outside at all, he might still need some support. As to his wrist, the doctor was confident enough in Dick’s ability to heal that he removed the cast without a second thought. Mac was smiling as she watched Dick flex his arm as if it were brand new.

“How’s it feel?” she asked.

“You tell me, babe,” he said with a wink, grabbing her around the waist and pulling her closer.

“Dick!” she protested, pushing him off, knowing she couldn’t make too much fuss because it would blow their cover.

Mac was ninety percent sure that was why Dick did it. They were an engaged couple for as long as they were at the hospital, which gave Dick licence to say and do things he wouldn't dare elsewhere. He knew Mac couldn’t say much or slap his face or whatever. Not that she was likely to anyway. They were so comfortable around each other these days, nothing he said or did really phased her. So long as they never spoke of that one time she kissed him and what that meant, they were just fine.

“I’m sure it’s been tough enough on the two of you these past few weeks,” said the doctor with a significant look at the ‘couple’. “Lucky all this happened long before the big day.”

Mac’s eyes widened a little as he realised the doctor seemed to be thinking more of the wedding night than the event itself. She tried her best not to colour at the implication, but Dick sure didn’t help much.

“No problem, Doc. My Macky Mac gets what she needs from her man, right, babe?” he said, winking at her again as he slapped her on the rear.

Mac tried to look shocked but it was impossible not to laugh at the stupid grin on Dick’s face and how brazen he was being. It was what led her to doing something that was probably the stupidest idea in the world.

“I’m just glad you’re all healed up, sweetheart,” she said, taking Dick’s face in her hands.

Before he had a chance to wonder on it, Mac had her lips on his own in a more than well-acted passionate kiss. Even the doctor was looking embarrassed when she pulled away, more proud of herself than she ever been. It took a lot to silence Dick Casablancas, but he was quiet for fully five minutes until the appointment was over and they were deemed free to go.

“What the hell, Mac?” he asked as they left the room.

“Not here,” she told him. “We’re engaged, remember? We’ll talk at home.”

That shut him up again in a second as the two exited the hospital and got into the waiting cab. The whole way home, Mac faced the passenger window on her side of the cab and Dick did the same on his side. They were not talking about this until they got home, Mac had made that clear and Dick knew better than to argue. Still, his mind was spinning with possibilities.

It had happened twice now. Twice Mac had laid one on him and she never really had a reason the first time, at least not one she was willing to tell him. As he once told her, Dick knew it meant something. He was the kind to run around putting the moves on chicks just because. Mac was different. If she was putting the moves on a guy, it had to mean something. Sure, they were play-acting at being involved when they were at the hospital, but she had no real reason to kiss him the way she had.

On the other side of the back-seat, Mac fought for some reasonable explanation for what she had done. She knew there was only one answer, one thing she could say that was the whole truth, but admitting it scared the living daylights out of her. By the time the cab pulled up outside of Dick’s house, she had maybe one sentence strung together that was truthful and actually made sense. It wasn’t enough, but it was all she had.

Dick wobbled a little as he got out the car. It was instinct for Mac to move to help him. Of course, his arm around her shoulders and hers around his waist felt a little too strange in the circumstances. He flinched at her touch and shook his head.

“I got it,” he told her. “The driver needs paying.”

Mac did that, more because she had to than because he said it. A few moments later, she made her way into the house and found Dick sat at the bottom of the stairs. He looked different, not just because his arm was out of the cast and his ankle wasn’t so thoroughly strapped, not even because he looked happy about being more able-bodied, since the smile from the hospital was long gone. Mac supposed he looked different because he was being entirely serious right now. So serious she had to remind herself to breathe.

“You, er... You need help getting upstairs?” she asked.

“No,” he replied, shaking his head. “We have to talk, Mac, and trust me, that’s not something I said to a whole lot of chicks before.”

She nodded that she did know that, because she did understand how serious this was. A part of her itched to go sit next to him, but Mac never actually moved. Maybe they were better off with the width of the entranceway between them for now.

“Dick, I... I’m sorry. I don’t really know what’s wrong with me, except that... Well, you and me have got to be friends, and that’s cool. It’s just that...”

“It’s just that you kissed me,” he said for her when her voice trailed away. “Twice now, and both times leave me wondering what the hell, Mac?”

“I know. I know,” she repeated, running a hand back through her hair. “Dick, all I can tell you is that in the time I’ve been living here I’ve got to know you better, the real you, and I don’t know if this guy was always underneath or if he’s developed in the past six weeks, but... I like him,” she admitted at last. “I like you, a lot, and I have no idea what that means or how to deal with it, okay?”

Mac couldn’t look directly at Dick when she made her confession or for several moments afterwards. When she eventually made herself glance up, she found him staring intently back at her, with a look that stuck her to the spot and took her breath away all in one. She watched him make a deal of getting to his feet with one arm that was under-used and an ankle that still wasn’t quite ready to take his weight. Mac never moved to help, she had a feeling Dick wouldn’t appreciate it right now as he walked over to her and just stood there a second or two.

Just when she was about to open her mouth and ask what was happening, Dick took Mac’s face in his hands and leaned down until their lips were almost touching. Mac swallowed hard and managed to get a decent breath in before he finally kissed her.

It was debatable who was holding who up after a minute or two, but that didn’t matter. With their arms around each other, both Mac and Dick got lost in a moment that was totally worth drowning in. He was a hell of a kisser when given the chance, and Mac never really expected anything else. Maybe she was a fool for starting this or for letting it happen, but she couldn’t help herself. This felt too good.

When they finally parted, Dick looked more shocked than anything else, despite the fact he was the one who strode over there all purposefully and kissed her like that. Mac gazed up at him and fought to get her bearings.

“Okay,” she said at last. “So...”

“So,” he echoed when it was all she seemed able to say, a smile playing at his lips. “If it wasn’t totally clear already, I like you too, Mac,” he admitted. “I don’t know, I’m not the guy who uses the L word, but if I was. I don’t know, Mac Attack. Somethin’ is going on here though, right?”

“Something is,” she agreed, nodding her head. “Kinda scary.”

“Oh yeah,” Dick told her definitely. “But I think I can handle it.”

“Me too,” she said with a smile that she caught from him.

When he leaned in even a little, Mac pulled his head down and ensured another kiss was imminent. Maybe they were crazy. After all, she used to date his brother who was long dead and had caused enough problems to screw up a great many people, plus he had been pretty mean to her in the past, screwed things up for her friends, and lest they forget, dated the girl Mac was switched at birth with. That was before they got to the fact he might have fathered a child fairly recently. It was kind of a train-wreck before they even began, but in this moment neither Mac nor Dick could find the time to care.

“Okay,” he said, suddenly pulling away from her. “This is the longest I’ve been standing up in a while and... yeah,” he staggered a little as he came over light-headed and Mac struggled to keep him steady.

“Sorry,” she apologised, guiding him carefully to the living room so they could sit down on the couch. “I’m supposed to be helping you get better. I don’t think causing you to pass out is classed as help.”

“Yeah, but what a way to go,” he leered, pulling her close as he could get her and going in for another kiss.

Mac was laughing right up until he captured her lips with his own.

They needed to talk, they really did. For all the serious stuff they had covered before, there was more to be dealt with, especially if this was going to be a real relationship that went anywhere. For now, Mac’s mind was clearing of all that serious stuff and she didn’t mind at all.


	22. Chapter 22

Veronica stood on the doorstep to Dick’s place and felt strange. She knew he was less than likely to answer the door. It was almost definitely going to be Mac, but her mind flashed back to when she first came back to Neptune, when she came to see Logan and got faced with Dick, shirtless with a beer in hand, making unscrupulous comments about her character. Veronica knew he had changed more recently. Last she saw him, Dick was strangely subdued. Life and death experiences affected people in different ways. What happened to Dick might just have changed him for the better. Veronica didn’t like to think it, but maybe it was worth him getting attacked to make such a positive change. Certainly Mac seemed to like the new Dick a whole lot better than the old one, though Veronica wondered how much of their connection had to do with change, and how much was just them finally having a chance to talk to each other about everything that only the two of them could really understand, particularly when it came to Cassidy.

Shaking her head, Veronica brought her mind back to the present and what she was actually here for her. She rang the bell and didn’t have to wait long before Mac appeared, smiling widely.

“Good morning, Little Miss Sunshine,” said Veronica with a smirk she couldn’t help. “Wow, it’s almost like you slept with a hanger in your mouth.”

“What? It’s a crime to be happy now?” 

Veronica rolled her eyes at the use of the word crime, clearly used to get to her as a P.I. She followed Mac into the house and through to the kitchen where she was cleaning up breakfast dishes from the seem of things. It struck Veronica how very domestic the whole thing was, and then it hit her.

“Did something happen?” she checked. “With you and Dick, I mean?”

Mac took a moment to finish straightening things in the cupboard then closed the door and turned to face her friend again. She leaned back on the counter and bit her lip.

“Damn your deductive skills,” she muttered. “Um, yeah. Me and Dick... Well, there was some kissing, and... and why do I feel like a teenager making confessions to her mother right now?” she said, a hand to her forehead. “I feel ridiculous!”

“Mac, c’mon,” said Veronica, dumping her bag on the counter. “I’m not here to judge you. You’re a grown woman and Dick is... well, over the age of consent anyway,” she said eventually. “What you guys choose to do is nobody’s business but yours.”

Mac knew she was right but that didn’t make her feel better. This was awkward, more than awkward. Mac had a hard time explaining to Dick how and why she liked him. Having this conversation with Veronica was even tougher. After all, she had her own reasons to hate the guy and knew Mac did too. It was kind of a crazy situation, but Mac couldn’t help how she felt.

“We’ve talked a lot since I moved in here. A lot,” Mac emphasised. “And I don’t mean this to sound like I’m ragging on your or Wallace or anyone else, but I can really talk to Dick, about all kinds of stuff that nobody else could ever get.”

“Cassidy,” said Veronica in understanding, trying not to look like she just chewed on something poisonous and bitter. “I guess I understand that.”

“It’s not just that though. It was a big part of it for a while, and then I had to tell him about Madison. That was a weird conversation,” she said with a burst of laughter she couldn’t control. “I don’t know, Veronica, it just seems like the more we talk, the more in common we have. His parents weren’t there for him. Mine were great but we both know they’re not my real mom and dad. That and everything else... I don’t know.”

“You keep saying that, but I think you do know,” said Veronica with a knowing smile. “C’mon, Mac, you think I don’t get it? You think of all the guys in the world I would’ve chosen Logan to love if I had a choice? Hell, no! I mean, I am completely in love with him, you know that, because I can’t help it, but we’re so lucky to be where we are right now. We could not have had a tougher time, and you know that better than most. I would’ve loved to be able to feel that much for Piz or Leo, some guy with no baggage, no complicated history. That’s not how love works.”

Mac opened her mouth and closed it again. She knew for a fact that what Veronica said was very true. It would’ve been easier on her to date someone easy to be with, and Mac could say the same, but when love came calling, you just didn’t have a choice but to roll the punches.

Stepping in closer, Mac leaned across the counter to whisper to Veronica, eyes flitting to the hall and stairs before she began.

“We haven’t exactly said the words, because hey, that’d be nuts, right? But there was an implication, on both sides.”

“On both sides?” Veronica checked. “Dick said-”

“Dick didn’t exactly say it in the traditional sense, but yeah, implications.”

“Wow!” Veronica looked understandably surprised and yet when she thought on it a moment, the shock subsided pretty fast. “Y’know, if anybody was going to make Dick Casablancas fall in love, I can imagine it’d be you, Cindy Mackenzie.”

Mac wasn’t sure what the reasoning would be on that. Maybe because she was at least a little attractive to Dick’s brother at one time. Maybe Veronica was just paying a compliment in general, but Mac didn’t get a chance to ask. Footfalls on the stairs certainly got Veronica’s attention if not her own immediately, and then there was Dick.

“Ronnie!” he said when he spotted her. “What’s up?”

“You, apparently,” she replied, rolling her eyes when Dick immediately frowned and looked down at his lower anatomy. “Up out of bed, Casablancas!” she amended. “Geez!”

She looked at Mac who bit her lip to keep from laughing. 

“What?” she asked eventually. “I never said he was a genius!”

“Hey, I told you, if we’re gonna do this dating thing, you’re the brains,” he reminded Mac. “I’m the looks. ‘Cept you’re the looks too.” He frowned and looked at Veronica. “Mac’s the brains, we’re both hot.”

“Okay then,” she replied, nodding her head. “Um, I’m actually here with more serious news. Case breakthrough type news,” she confirmed, turning and reaching into her bag.

“You know what happened to Dick?” asked Mac as he wandered over to stand beside her.

Veronica glanced up and noticed Dick’s arm around Mac’s waist as they stood together waiting for her to reveal all. She suspected a little more than kissing went on last night. Plus what Mac said had to be true, this was a love thing, however wacky that sounded when spoken of in the same sentence as ‘relationship’ and ‘Dick Casablancas’.

“Er, yeah. I think I know what happened,” she said, pulling out the recorder containing Adam’s confession, and then a whole pile of documents and pictures.

She laid out the chain of events and the major players, explaining how she came to her conclusions, then played the recording that proved all she was saying. By the time she was done, Dick had sat down on a stool and Mac had her arm around his shoulders. They really did look an awful lot like a happy couple (with less emphasis on the happy in this moment). Veronica wished she felt more comfortable with that.

“Darryl Marone,” said Dick after a long silence.

“Yup,” Veronica replied, popping the p. “For what it’s worth, Dick, I’m sorry. Even the evidence I’ve got here, it probably wouldn’t be enough to make anything stick to him. Maybe Adam, but the other two-”

“It’s fine,” he interrupted, literally waving away her concern. “You did what you do, Ronnie, and you did it good. Thanks,” he said, glancing up at her and forcing a smile.

She managed a smile back and a nod of her head. It was actually pretty easy to feel sorry for the guy right now. This whole attack thing was bad, really bad. Dick could’ve been killed, and Veronica knew he was well aware of that. It was never cool to know that somebody was out there in the world that would happily knock seven bells out of you and leave you for dead. Veronica had been there and done that. She wouldn’t wish it on anyone, not even Dick.

“So, we can’t go to the sheriff with this?” asked Mac. “I mean, I know he’s pretty useless-”

“Ha!” The sound escaped from Veronica’s throat before she could do anything to stop it. “Sorry, but no, I don’t think even a decent sheriff would be able to make a worthwhile case based on this kind of evidence,” she said, shaking her head. “I could maybe get a confession out of Darryl and that might-”

“No,” said Dick so suddenly he almost made both women physically jump. “You’ve done enough,” he told Veronica, getting up from the stool and walking away.

Mac called his name but Dick didn’t stop, just headed for the stairs and kept on going. Veronica wasn’t sure what to think or really what to do. She would rather not involve herself in this situation any further, but at the same time, running out on a friend in need (meaning Mac more than Dick) didn’t seem right either.

“I should go after him,” said Mac, moving to do just that. “I’m sorry, Veronica.”

“Nothing to be sorry for. I can stay if you want, or get out of your hair if that’s easier?” she tried.

The look on Mac’s face said it all and Veronica smiled, shoving her things back in her bag.

“If you need me...”

“Thanks, Veronica,” said Mac with a smile before she ran up the stairs after Dick.

She headed straight for his room, unsure whether he would’ve locked himself in there or be smashing the place up in anger and frustration by now. Mac might even have been prepared for tears. She wasn’t ready for the calmness she found.

Dick was stood out on the balcony, hands braced on the rail, tension obvious throughout his whole body as he stared out at the ocean, large waves crashing up onto the sand. It would've been a great day for surfing.

Mac stepped out into the morning light and laid one careful hand on Dick’s shoulder.

“Hey,” she greeted him. “You okay?”

“Yeah. No. I don’t know,” Dick admitted. “My life is kind of a mess, y‘know? ‘Cept for the part where you’re here,” he said with a smile as he glanced her way.

Mac blushed and set her eyes on the view. “Well, I like being here. Got no plans on being anywhere else for a while. As long as you need me anyway.”

“Is it weird that I can’t think about not needing you right now?” he asked, though there was no pause in which she might answer him. “I mean, my whole life it’s pretty much just been me - you know how it is with my family - and there was Logan, but that’s kinda different. He always had other people too, like his mom when he was growing up, and then Lilly and Duncan, Veronica. I don’t know, I never had a person I didn’t know how to be without, but now I think about when you leave and... and I don't know how to handle it.”

It was probably the longest, most serious speech she had heard him make that wasn’t yelled in a fight. They talked a lot but Dick spoke briefly on anything that wasn’t funny or pointless. He meant all of this, Mac was sure on that, even if he couldn’t look at her when he said it. Nobody could meet Dick Casablancas and mistake him for a shy person, but he had real problems when it came to facing his own feelings.

“For what it’s worth, I know what you mean,” said Mac, leaning in closer until her head was resting against his shoulder.

There was a long moment when neither spoke, just stared out across the ocean as if they hoped some kind of divine inspiration would come. It didn’t.

“What are we going to do now?” she asked after a while. “About Darryl Marone. He can’t get away with what he did.”

Dick let out a long sigh. 

“He had reasons.”

Mac’s eyes widened at that comment, her head coming up from his shoulder and staring until Dick finally met her gaze.

“C’mon, Macky. You know he did. I messed around with his sister in high school. My brother is the reason Betina is dead. I slept with his fiancee and... and her kid might be mine,” he listed, looking particularly bothered by the last point - Mac knew why.

“Dick, you’re not a saint. I’m well aware,” she reminded him, “but nothing gives that asshole the right to do what he did. You could’ve died in that alley!” she said forcefully, mostly in an attempt to keep the emotion from taking her voice away entirely.

More than once she had woken from nightmares of that night when she found Dick beaten and bloody behind the 09er. Mac wasn’t exactly squeamish, but getting to know Dick well, getting to like him as much as she had, it made it so much worse to think about not only what had been, but also what might’ve been.

“Maybe somebody should tell him that,” Dick considered, squinting against the light that suddenly came too bright, before turning all his attention to Mac. “You think you can work your computer mojo and get this guy’s address?”

“Sure.” Mac nodded. “We’re going over there?” she checked.

Dick smiled wide and she couldn’t understand why. It was because she just naturally added herself to his situation without even thinking about it. Dick had never known anybody willing to do that for him, except maybe Logan, and that was different, that was a bro thing.

“Y’know what, Mackenzie?” he said, putting his arms around her. “You’re pretty damn amazing.”

Mac had no answer for that. She just kissed him.


	23. Chapter 23

Mac wasn’t sure how she felt about a trip to Darryl Marone’s home address. It was a Saturday so there was a better chance of him being home than on a regular day. She had said as much as she drove Dick over there, though Mac was a little unsure as to whether she wanted to find Darryl at home or not. She was a little bemused by Dick’s need to come here at all. As far as she was concerned, this guy ought to pay for what he did. Dick seemed kind of apathetic to the whole thing, and it hurt Mac to realise it. The worst of it was, she kind of understood his reasoning. He had done so much wrong to Darryl, or at least, he could see why the guy would think so. Dick understood best of anyone why he took a beating and he wasn’t angry or sad anymore, he had made his peace with it, for lack of a better term.

“I don’t remember what he looks like,” said Dick as Mac pulled the car up outside the correct house. “I know I saw him around school. He was only a couple of years older. Betina loved her big bro.”

Mac looked down at her hands in her lap and tried to think of anything to say that might help. Nothing came to mind for a long moment. Then she realised Dick wasn’t moving at all, just staring across at a small house with little in the way of distinguishing features. It was an ordinary place and she supposed Darryl Marone was an ordinary guy, for the most part. The thing was, he had done something very wrong, and he ought to know how bad it really was.

“You sure you wanna-?”

“Yes,” said Dick so suddenly, not just interrupting Mac but getting out of the car before she even had a chance to get her seat-belt undone.

She scrambled to go after him, and thanks to traffic didn’t catch up until Dick was already on the doorstep ringing the bell. Mac wanted to ask what he was going to do or even say, but she never got the chance. The door came open pretty fast and there he was, Darryl Marone. Mac hadn’t known what to expect, but she did know this was the guy, the way he was staring at Dick with anger over-ridden by confusion proved it.

“What are you doin’ here?” he asked eventually.

“Dude, you know why we’re here,” said Dick, steely-eyed and serious as Mac had ever seen him. “Y’know, a couple of weeks ago, I couldn’t have come here. I had a busted arm, busted ribs. See the ankle? Still not cool, man,” he said, gesturing to the strapping around his lower leg and foot.

Darryl opened his mouth to speak, but Mac didn’t give him the chance.

“And don’t even try asking why you should care, or how it happened,” she told him firmly. “We know it was you.”

Darryl shook his head, then moved his eyes back to Dick. It was clear he was considering his options, whether to close the door in their faces, deny everything, or just laugh and say they could never prove anything. Before he could finish his mental debate, Dick made a choice for him.

“I’m not here to threaten you, man. You did what you did, I’m not denyin’ that maybe I had it comin’,” he admitted, ignoring Mac when she tried to tell him ‘no’, “but, dude, you went too far. You coulda killed me, and we both know that’s mostly because Lucy had a kid and you think it could be mine.”

“You never should’ve touched her,” said Darryl, pointing a threatening finger. “And after what you did to my sister...”

Mac squeezed Dick’s hand that had found it’s way around hers sometime in the last couple of minutes. His fingers squeezed back a little, and then his free hand reached out to the door jamb and took hold.

“He can’t stand around on the porch, unless you want him to pass out all over the place and make a real scene,” said Mac to Darryl.

He narrowed his eyes, wary of being played, she supposed. Maybe he thought they wanted to come inside so Dick could suddenly flip and rip him a new one. She was about to assure him there was no nefarious plan in play when a voice behind him spoke up.

“Let him in,” said Lucy, coming into view. “C’mon, Darryl, just... just let ‘em in.”

Mac helped Dick into the house and then turned to Lucy. “You know what he did and you’re back with him?” she asked of Darryl.

“Hey, look at who you’re with,” she said, tilting her head at a pale looking Dick sprawled on the couch now. “Don’t you dare come to my house and judge me.”

She had a point, Mac knew that much. She buttoned her lip and sat down next to Dick, checking he was okay.

“I’m good, babe. No big,” he promised her. “Look, I didn’t come here to make trouble,” he told Darryl and Lucy as they sat down opposite. “Truth is, I don’t want any revenge on you for what you did. Like I said, I probably had it coming, but you gotta know how bad that could’ve been. You coulda killed me, man. For real.”

Darryl had the grace to look ashamed of himself, eyes on the carpet for a few seconds.

“It wasn’t supposed to go that far,” he admitted. “I just wanted to... I don’t know, make you hurt like I was hurting, I guess. When Missy said she could help make sure you pay, I had no idea it was goin’ to be that serious. You were practically out cold when she shot you with that stuff, but I was kinda drunk and I went a little crazy... I’m not proud of it, okay?”

“Wow, that makes it all better,” said Mac coldly.

Dick squeezed her hand, gave her a look and shook his head. It wasn't that he didn't appreciate her being on his side, but he told these two he didn’t come for a fight and that was true. He wanted this over. Everybody needed to know where they stood, then they all parted ways and this could be done for good.

“Darryl’s been through a lot,” said Lucy, her hand on her man’s shoulder. “I’m not saying what he did to you was justified. I did the wrong thing too,” she told Dick what he already knew. “But it’s been tough on everybody.”

“You seem to have come out pretty unscathed,” said Mac with a look.

Lucy snorted with laughter. “You’re kidding, right? You think it’s been easy? Knowing how much I hurt the man I love? Knowing what I drove him to do to somebody else? Carrying a kid, not knowing who the father was? Still not knowing. Yeah, I know, my own fault, but that doesn't stop it being hard. All I wanted was to fix things with Darryl, but after what he did to Dick... We’ve all done wrong.”

“’Cept for Macky,” Dick noted. “She saved my life that night.”

“By the seem of things, not just that night,” said Lucy, her eyes narrowing a little as she spotted their joined hands. “The Dick Casablancas I knew before, he wasn’t the type to come sit down for a good old grown up talk about everything.”

“The Dick Casablancas you knew was kind of dumb,” he admitted with a smile he couldn’t help. “I’m not sayin’ I’m suddenly the smartest guy in the world, I’m not, but bein’ messed up so bad... Point is, you needed to know what you did,” he told Darryl then. “And we all need to find out who made a kid.”

“Granted.” Darryl nodded his head. “So, you’re not going to the Sheriff about me?”

“Nope.” Dick shook his head. “Wouldn’t help me any. Body’s almost healed, you know you made the wrong call, or at least, that you went too far. Some ways you probably did me a favour anyway.”

Darryl looked confused by that, but Lucy was wearing a knowing smile. It wasn’t that she agreed with what he boyfriend did to Dick, but maybe it had been good for him in the long term. He finally seemed to have grown up some, and him and this girl he called Macky, they seemed pretty close. Maybe this was how it was all supposed to work out. Of course, there was still the matter of the baby. Remembering her daughter asleep in the next room made Lucy's smile slip.

“Er, you wanna...? You wanna meet Becca?” she offered Dick, knowing he had a right, technically speaking, because he could be her father.

Dick squirmed. Looked at Mac then back to Lucy.

“No, thanks,” he told her eventually. “I’ll pay for the DNA, and then if... if she’s mine, then we’ll figure something out.”

Lucy nodded that she understood. They were all on the same page here. It would be better for everyone present is Becca turned out to be Darryl’s daughter. Dick wasn’t ready for a kid, in spite of how he had clearly grown over the past month or two. If he ever were in a position to play Daddy, Lucy knew there was a much better candidate for Mommy than her.

Mac and Dick left soon after, leaving his number with Lucy and Darryl, a promise between them that the DNA test be carried out just as soon as possible. It was unfair on Becca, as well as everyone else, to leave things up in the air.

They were back in the car before Mac spoke again. This was just one more bizarre day in a string of similarly odd occasions. She supposed she ought to be used to it by now.

“Okay, let’s get you home,” she said with a forced smile as she looked over at Dick.

“No,” he told her, clicking his seatbelt into place, wincing some as he found a comfortable position in the seat. “One more stop first. Mars Investigations,” he told Mac.

She looked understandably confused. “Really? Well, it's Saturday, I don’t even know if Veronica will be at the office...” she considered, starting the engine, “except she’s a workaholic and Logan is still gone, so yeah, that’s exactly where she’ll be.”

* * *

Veronica looked up when she heard the door. It was a surprise to find Mac with Dick in tow entering the office.

“Hey, guys,” she greeted them from the other side of the Reception desk, papers in her hands. “Everything okay?”

“We went to see Darryl Marone,” said Mac when Dick remained silent and awkward, despite the fact it had been his idea to come here.

“Oh.” Veronica reacted with surprise. “Wow, okay,” she said, ushering them into her office since she had no idea what would be said next or who could walk in in the meantime. “What happened?” she asked, taking her seat.

Mac dropped down into a chair on the other side of the desk but Dick stayed standing.

“He’s sorry, whatever that means,” Mac said of Darryl. “And there’s going to be a DNA. Lucy’s baby,” she explained.

Veronica nodded in understanding, just a little confused by how serious Dick looked and why he seemed unwilling to sit down.

“That’s not why we’re here,” he said eventually, almost as if he knew Veronica was looking for him to explain himself. “Here.”

She looked up at his arm out-stretched in her direction, a familiar shaped piece of paper in his hand. Trying not to frown, Veronica took what he offered her, turning it over to read the letters and figures on the cheque. Her eyes went so wide they nearly rolled clean out of her head.

“Wow, that’s a lot of zeroes!” she declared. “Dick, what is this?”

“Payment,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “I know you took on the whole ‘Who Beat Up Dick?’ case because of Mac, or for Logan, whatever. Doesn’t matter,” he said, literally waving it away. “You’re not like me, Ronnie. You work for your money. The work is done, so...”

It took a lot for Veronica to tear her eyes away from the substantial amount of money in her hands, but she made a point of meeting Dick’s gaze before he was done speaking. He meant what he said, and the shock on Mac’s face proved she had no idea why they had come here. She wasn’t the reason Dick wrote the cheque and brought it over. He figured out for himself what the right thing to do was and then did it. ‘Miracles do happen’, Veronica thought.

“Well, thank you, Dick,” she said, knowing anything else would be unfair in such a moment.

He nodded once and then realised a little too suddenly he really did ought to sit. He dropped down into the seat beside Mac, but his eyes stayed on Veronica.

“Y’know, I get why you don’t like me,” he told her. “I royally screwed up with you when we were kids and all. I totally get it, but things are different now. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry, Veronica. For everything.”

It took a minute for all of that to register with Miss Mars. He meant it, she really believed that, and Veronica had dealt with enough practised liars to know the difference. When Dick said he was sorry for everything, he really did mean for it all, every last thing that she could hate him for. It wasn’t quite the epic list she would like to pretend sometimes, but there were one or two crimes that were not easily forgiven. Perhaps she could find the capacity to let them go, now that Dick actually seemed to be feeling guilty and looking for peace here.

“Thanks, Dick,” she said at last, finding a hint of a smile came weirdly easily right now. “And for what it’s worth to you, I’m glad you and Mac have this thing going on. I think it might just be the best thing for both of you.”

Dick smiled too. 

“Thanks, Ronnie.”

* * *

They were home again before Mac really dare talk to Dick about what had happened today. She couldn’t keep the wonder or strangely giddy laughter out of her voice when she spoke to him.

“You are just full of surprises,” she said, staring up at him with something akin to real wonder in her eyes.

He didn’t get a chance to say anything back when she kissed him. Not that Dick minded much. Kissing on his Macky was pretty much his favourite thing to do anyway. She was in his lap, their arms wound around each other, when suddenly she pulled away and looked too serious.

“What?”

“I love you,” said Mac, suddenly going from serious to laughter in point five of a second, and Dick looked as confused as he clearly felt. “I’m sorry,” Mac told him, waving her hand around as she tried to calm down. “I am, it just... it feels so weird to say that to anybody. I never really looked a guy in the eye and said... what I just said,” she admitted, suddenly too embarrassed to meet his eyes. “I really don’t want to freak you out, Dick, it’s just... Well, you’ve changed a lot. All the parts of you I already liked are still there, plus a whole lot more, and a lot less of the moronic crappy parts,” she said with a look that proved she was at least half-joking.

Dick didn’t look amused, but then he wasn’t mad either. Mac had to hope he understood where she was coming from. When she met his eyes again, she knew she was right.

“Y’know, I always had a thing for you,” he said almost too seriously.

“No, you did not,” she told him, shoving him in the shoulder but his grip on her body remained firm.

“C’mon! Why’d you think I was always giving you such a hard time?” he asked her. “I knew I couldn’t have you, so I was an ass to you. I know it’s dumb,” he admitted, shaking his head.

“No,” said Mac, her hands on the sides of his head, fingers messing his hair as she got him to look at her again. “It’s not dumb,” she promised, leaning in until their foreheads touched and then kissing his lips gently. “Y’know I was very proud of you for today. I don’t know when you found your inner adult, but that guy’s pretty cool.”

“Yeah?” he checked. “Honestly, I have no idea either,” he admitted, kissing her. “I’m just glad you were there... here... whatever,” he told her. “I’m always glad you’re around, Macky.”

“Where else would I be?” she asked, the last thing said before they got lost in kissing each other once again.


	24. Chapter 24

Mac had thought it would feel strange going back to her old routine. In the end, she had sort of formed a whole new plan for her days, a mixture of how she used to live and how she had been living her life these past couple of months. Two weeks since the case of Dick’s attack was put to bed, and Mac had started going into the office more to work for Veronica. Dick could do for himself for a few hours, even though he didn’t particularly like to. He was always happiest when Mac came home to him, and since his home was her home too now, on a permanent basis, it all worked out for everyone.

“Dick?” she called as she came into the house after a long day.

Mac tossed her bag and jacket into the chair, but kept her sunglasses on. The splashing sounds she heard proved that Dick was out back in the pool. She wandered through the house and out of the French doors onto the patio. There he was, her boyfriend, looking like some kind of Adonis as he swam lengths of the pool with ease now.

It was good physio, they had both agreed on that, and quite honestly Mac took less and less convincing when it came to any activity that got Dick mostly naked. They hadn’t taken the ultimate step in their relationship yet. All the other little ones, but so far Mac still technically had her own room here and she was okay with that, for now. There was a part of her that had almost expected Dick to make a big deal out of that, but surprisingly no. His problem was with Mac insisting she pay any rent.

“I’m not living here for free, Dick, no way,” she had told him most definitely in what had been the closest to a fight they had gotten in the past couple of weeks. “I’m not Vivian Ward.”

Dick hadn’t even made a crack about that not being possible since they weren’t sleeping together. Mac was almost disappointed. She didn’t want all of the original Dick to slip away, because he was the guy she had fallen in love with, warts and all. Since then he had proven he could be just as funny and just as gross as ever before when he put his mind to it. He just wouldn’t be Dick if he didn’t live up to his name sometimes.

“Hey, babe!” he said when he spotted her, coming over to the edge of the pool. “Enjoying the view?”

“Girlfriend’s privilege,” she told him crouching down to lean in and kiss him. “You’ll be back on a board before we know it, dude,” she teased him.

“Can’t wait,” he admitted. “The sea calls my name, babe. ‘S been too long since I rode a wave.”

“Well, you’re gonna have to wait it out until at least tomorrow,” she reminded him. “We’ve got a lot of party prep to do in the next two hours,” she said, checking her watch.

“Babe, it does not take two hours to prep a Dick Casablancas party,” he told her definitely. “Just wheel in the kegs and crank up the stereo!”

“You forget, this is a Casablancas-Mackenzie party. All the fun of the original, with a little touch of class... and fancy tech,” she told him with a grin.

Dick grinned right back at her. “You don’t have any of that fancy tech on you right now, do you?”

Mac opened her mouth to say that no, of course she didn’t when she realised a little too late why he had asked.

“Dick, no...” she began to protest, but it was too late. 

He already had a hold of her and hauled her right into the pool, clothes and all, before she hardly had a chance to get a breath in. Splashing in panic a moment, Mac was soon smacking Dick in the chest for his foolish behaviour. It might have been better if she hadn’t been laughing through the water that ran streaming down her face as she tried to scold him like a kid.

“Just when I think you might actually have progressed beyond the mentality of a teenage boy!” she said, as if exasperated by him.

“Babe, you know I am totally all adult male,” he reminded her, pulling her close enough to prove it, something Mac didn’t protest at all, at least not at first.

She tried to get out of his arms and away from his kisses after a little while, though it was a fairly reluctant manoeuvre.

“Dick, we really have to stop,” she urged him, treading water the whole time. “Party, remember?”

Of course he remembered, and Dick sighed when he realised Mac did have a point. As much fun as it would be to just spend the evening messing around between the pool, the hot tub, and hopefully ultimately the bedroom, they couldn’t back out on this party. It may have been billed as a belated birthday celebration for Dick, but both he and Mac knew it was way more. Not only a party to show everyone they were together, and to celebrate the fact a DNA test had proven Dick was not the father of Lucy Laos’ daughter, but more than that, a chance to make good friends as happy as they were right now.

* * *

“Well, don’t you look beautiful?” said Keith as his daughter wandered out into the living room. “You scrub up good, kid,” he joked when the genuine compliment yielded no real kind of reaction.

“Thanks, Dad,” she said, granting him a smile, even as she continued to look around the room, under the table, under the couch cushion beside him.

“Lost something?” he asked, as if that weren’t obvious.

“Yeah,” she said absently, checking her purse one more time.

Keith watched wide eyed as Veronica emptied out not just her cell, lip-gloss, and wallet, but also Mr Sparky’s more discreet cousin that she now favoured.

“Really?” he checked, picking up the Taser and showing her he was both confused and unimpressed. “You expecting trouble at this party?”

“I expect trouble everywhere I go, Pops,” she told him with a look. “Isn’t that the way you raised me?”

“Point taken,” Keith considered, putting the Taser back on the table. “But I hardly think a civilised house party that Mac is in charge of is going to require any electric shocks.”

“Hopefully not. Dick at last seems to have learnt to only be handsy with the one woman, and thank God it’s not me,” she said, only half joking. “Left hook still works for the rest, right?”

“Far as I know,” her father agreed.

Veronica left the Taser on the table just this once and fastened her purse again, now sure she had everything she needed. A quick look in the hall mirror proved she looked okay. She wouldn’t normally bother to get so dressed up, but Mac had insisted it was going to be kind of a fancy affair. Veronica felt slightly self-conscious in her long blue dress with her hair swept up, but she had heard her dad say she looked beautiful when she walked in and liked to believe he wasn’t just being kind to his only child.

“Okay,” she said at last. “Time to go. I won’t be home late,” she promised, leaning over the couch to kiss his bald head.

“Have fun, sweetheart,” he told her, smiling just a little too much.

Thankfully she had her back to him by then and didn’t notice. Other than Mac and Dick, Keith was the only other person to know exactly why Veronica had been invited to the party, and it wasn’t to boogie like it was 1999.

* * *

“Welcome to the party house!” said Dick loudly the moment he opened the door.

“Hello, Dick,” said Veronica, smiling through the surprise.

She wasn’t used to him being so pleasant to her yet, or to finding him at a party with all of his clothes on. Veronica had to admit, in proper pants and a button down shirt, Dick didn’t look half bad, though he was still managing to make her feel a little over-dressed.

“Mac! Ronnie’s here!” he called to his girlfriend.

Veronica was barely in the door before Mac was in front of her.

“You look amazing,” she told her friend.

“And you look like a normal person,” Veronica noted. “Why do I feel like Miss America just walked into the Gap?”

“You look good,” Mac insisted, apparently unable or unwilling to explain further. “Now come on, come get in the party spirit.”

Veronica knew something was going on here. She had no idea what exactly it was, but something just wasn’t quite right. Mac was acting strange. Not a bad kind of strange, but something was off and Veronica just knew it.

“It’s not my birthday,” she said, just in case that was what they thought.

“Did I say it was?” asked Mac. “Er, Dick? Why don’t you ask Veronica to dance?”

“Sure,” he agreed too easily, alerting Veronica to the fact she really must have entered an alternate reality. “C’mon, Ronnie,” he urged her, grabbing her hand before she had a chance to protest.

“On the day I choose to leave the Taser home,” she muttered, her words lost in the thumping of the music as Dick spun her out into the middle of the ‘dancefloor’.

They had cleared all the furniture out of the main living room and opened up the doors at both ends so guests could gain access to both the dining room, which presumably contained food and drink, and the patio so those that were dumb enough or drunk enough to think a moonlight swim was a good idea could dive right in. Right now, Veronica was just concentrating on the madness that was dancing with Dick at a party where she was the only one too formerly attired.

“Dick, I’m not...” she began to protest about the whole dancing thing when the music suddenly changed.

Veronica looked up as if she thought some divine intervention had switched the song playing from a jumpy pop number to something distinctly eighties and dramatic. A memory came to mind unbidden as a spotlight shone down on Veronica alone.

‘When I pictured this moment "I’ve Had The Time Of My Life" was playing,’ she heard Logan say inside of her head. Now that was what exactly was playing, and as she spun around, she knew exactly why.

“Oh my God!” she gasped, both hands over her mouth as Logan strode purposefully towards her.

He was in full uniform, looking as handsome and wonderful as Veronica had ever seen him. Everybody else in the room just seemed to disappear in a moment, the music was background noise, the whole world may as well have entirely melted away. All Veronica was seeing was Logan, all she felt was his arms sliding around her body and his lips on her own.

“You’re home,” she said pointlessly, when they parted a moment. “How are you home?”

“Plans changed,” he told her, grinning. “If I told you about it, I’d have to kill you,” he joked. “Happy to see me, Mars?” he checked.

“Happy?” she echoed. “You have no idea,” she said, laughing and crying at the same time as she kissed him.

Across the room, Mac felt Dick’s arm slide around her waist and naturally leaned into his embrace. She couldn’t leave her station right now, manning the music and the lights that had made this moment so cheesy and yet so perfect. When Logan had called Dick and told him he was coming home early and wanted some help to surprise Veronica, Mac had been more than willing to assist. She only ever wanted those friends that she loved like family to be as happy as she was. Tonight had worked out just perfectly.

As Dirty Dancing’s most famous track ended, Mac set another party playlist running, pulled the spotlight off the happy couple, and then gave her full attention to Dick.

“I think we did good,” she said, hugging him close.

“Hell, yeah!” he agreed, leaning down to kiss her. “I mean, look at those two. They’re totally going to be doing it tonight!”

“Hence the hotel suite,” said Mac with a smile, knowing Keith would be as grateful for that detail as Logan and Veronica were. “Of course, some of us have our own homes and don’t have to worry about unwanted company,” she said, looking up at Dick intently until the light seemed to dawn. “How fit are you feeling tonight, Casablancas?”

“Babe, you serious?” he checked, sure he had to be misunderstanding her.

“About you?” she said teasingly. “Always.”

Planting one more kiss on his lips, she let go of him and walked away. Dick shook his head so hard he felt his eyes rattle in his skull. Maybe she didn’t mean what he thought she meant. Until the party was over, he figured he wasn’t going to find out anyway. Not that it really mattered. Mac made him so damn happy, it was kind of insane. He never thought he could have this life, a woman who really loved him and miraculously that he could love too. All those times he called guys like Logan whipped, played the party animal because it seemed like the better choice. Dick knew better now, and he honestly didn’t mind admitting it.

* * *

It was past midnight before the party-goers finally left. The guest list had been a little different to Dick’s usual blow-outs, way less bikini-clad promiscuous types and more of Mac’s friends, plus some of the neighbours that she had gotten to know recently. Wallace had been invited but declined, citing a long week at work as his reason. Dick blamed himself, but Mac wouldn’t allow it. She knew Wallace was telling the truth. He wasn’t all that keen on Dick, or Logan, truth be told, but he swallowed a lot of that for the sake of his two best girl-friends. If he said he was busy or tired or whatever, then he was.

Honestly, as she stood on the front porch yawning and waving away the last of the guests, Mac was glad that they hadn’t invited any more people. It was worth the party for Veronica and Logan’s reunion if nothing else, and she had enjoyed herself tonight, but she wasn’t sorry the event was over.

“Wow,” said Dick as he stood staring at the living room when Mac returned. “Epic clean-up.”

“Yup,” she agreed. “But they have people you can hire to do that, right?”

Dick looked at her with wide eyes. “Seriously? You want to hire people to clean the house? Babe, that is totally my line.”

Mac chuckled. “Yeah, well, I only have so much energy left right now,” she admitted leaning into him. “And I was kind of saving that for you.”

She had that look on her face again, the one she was wearing earlier when Dick had been so sure she was offering something he never pressured her for. Sure, they had their share of make-outs and more than fun stuff, but he and Mac had yet to go all the way. After less than a month of seriously being together and her being so special and all, Dick knew better than to push. He had assumed it was going to be a long painful road that led to getting Mac into his bed for more than sleep, but apparently she was just full of surprises tonight.

“Dick?” she prompted when he was silent and staring too long. “Hey, anybody home?” she asked, lightly tapping her fist on the side of his head as if knocking to gain entry. “C’mon, dude, you’re making me think maybe you don’t want me or something.”

She said it like she was joking, though quite honestly Mac was feeling just a little vulnerable right now. Being with Dick was something else, and when it came to actually being with him physically like this, she had expected not to feel ready this soon. The moment had presented itself quite out of the blue, but Mac was sure she was okay with it. She wanted this, she wanted him. Now suddenly he seemed apprehensive and it made her worry.

“Macky, you know I want you,” he told her, quelling every fear not just with his words but the way he was looking at her right now. “I’m just... You’re different. I mean, you’re special. I don’t want to screw it up, y’know?”

“This from a guy who told me the two things he knew he was best at were surfing and sex,” she half-joked, knowing she was an idiot for making light of such a moment but somehow unable to help it.

“I’m trying to be serious here. Kind of a new look for me,” he said anyway, a smile quirking up one side of his mouth.

“I know,” she agreed, nodding her head as she turned into his arms and faced him straight on. “But you can’t screw this up, Dick. I want to be with you and if you want to be with me, if you care about me...”

“Yeah,” he said when her voice trailed away. “I... Yeah, I actually do. Macky, you know I love you, right?” he admitted. “And that’s probably the weirdest moment of my life right there, because I never, ever though I would ever say that to a chick and mean it, but I totally do. I love you, Cindy Mackenzie,” he said it again, as if proving both to her and himself that he really was serious and okay with it.

Her smile lit up the room and then she reached up and kissed him. It would be hours before they came back to reality, a whole lot of time spent just wrapped up in each other, taking it slow and learning everything they could about each other. It was how their whole relationship had been, and it was as strong as could be because of it.

If anybody had told Mac and Dick just six months ago that this would be them now, the picture of happiness, making love like the stars of a romance novel (only hotter, according to Dick) they both would’ve laughed in that person's face. Love had to have a sense of humour, they were both sure on that. There was no other way to explain what they had found together, but neither of them were giving it up now, not for anything in the world.


End file.
